Письма 201–300

Most Honorable of the Lord N N I thank the Lord for your safe return to your loving family - your wife and children. Thank you for visiting our monastery; You have undertaken a lot of work, and for this the Lord has given you consolation, according to your faith, may He extend His rich mercy to you and your family and bless your deeds undertaken in piety. We are very glad that we had a good talk with our bishop, and discussed everything necessary with him; of course, this will be beneficial both for him and for the flock. We see in him a good shepherd and are very pleased with him; Through his prayers and blessings our monastery is preserved. March 1, 1860. We heartily sympathize with the grief of you and your most respected relative about the deprivation of his God-loving wife; he lost a good wife and helper, and his children lost a mother who lovingly loved them, caring for their safety and peace. All this, due to human weakness, brings sorrow, and we must seek consolation in faith and trust in the Lord: He, through His all-wise providence and His incomprehensible destinies, has now placed her in eternity, and since she was a true Christian, he honored her with the most pure sacraments, then we have hope that she will be worthy of the mercy of God and will receive the kingdom of heaven. This hope can dissolve the grief of sorrow with consolation. Remembering her in prayer and remembering her soul brings great benefit and spiritual joy. Also, alms done for her are of great benefit, and by fulfilling this duty they will prove their love for her. Having received your venerable writing on March 9, we immediately served a memorial service for the repose of her soul, and her name was recorded for commemoration, both in the monastery during the reading of the psalter and at liturgies, and in monasteries; We pray to the Lord that he may rest her soul in the kingdom of heaven, and may he give you and her husband and children health and consolation in your grief about your late sister. March 12, 1860. Most Honorable of the Lord N N Although I do not dare to rely on my own reason, and even more so, knowing my own worthlessness, but, seeing your faith with which you question my badness, in the hope of God’s admonition, according to your faith, I am writing to you answers to your questions. That you are pious and God-fearing, I see clearly from your letter, and piety has a basis - faith in God and in His all-wise providence, but when you encounter bewilderment, not trusting yourself, you seek permission from others, and this distrust of your mind proves your humility, which God looks upon; Your diligence to be often in church during divine services is the duty of every Christian, and its fulfillment is commendable, and the Lord accepts it when it is offered humbly. But you are faced with the temptation of how to leave the children alone? Something unpleasant could happen to them due to oversight; This is a temptation to your faith - such a doubt: is it really possible that something unpleasant could happen to you if God allows it? According to St. Prophet David, we know and believe that “God protects infants” (Ps. 114:5); then without His preservation ours is not enough, and so your thoughts mentioned are from the opposition, which wants to distract you from church services. If you cannot be in church often, then you should not leave Sundays and holidays, except in unforeseen cases. Having been in church, you offer prayers for your children, and when you go to church, you entrust them to the protection of God and the intercession of the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel, and be calm, hoping for the providence and protection of God. The second question is also based on faith in the providence of God, believing that without His permission nothing will happen to us and no one can do anything contrary to us, and what happens happens according to His providence, unknown to us, and you rightly think so, this should reassure you. March 19, 1860. Thank you for wishing me a happy holiday. We spent the holiday, thank God, safely and in normal health. Glory to God, who preserves you on the other side, in good health, may He preserve your mental health in the firmness of our Orthodox faith and the dogmas of our Church, established by the Lord Himself on the seven-pillar foundation of the Holy Church. ecumenical councils, where the Holy Spirit acted in legislating dogmas and institutions, since you are in the capital of temptations, various harmful opinions against the faith, and even unbelief and free-thinking, where not everyone can resist such strong pressures of the enemy militia. But my heart assures me that by the power of God’s help you will not be shaken, and you will remain firm on the basis of our Orthodox Russian faith and keep this precious pearl in your hearts; For which I humbly pray to the Most Merciful Lord, I also ask you to humbly pray to the Lord for this. But you can’t rely on yourself that you can save yourself with your strength and reason. May the Lord be your helper and guardian, and the Mother of God, our intercessor, cover you with His protection and intercession. I sincerely rejoice that the time is approaching for you to leave from there and finish the intensive work in which you also participated... However, maybe they will require quite a bit of work here to complete completion, and in this, may the Lord help you, we will be happy to wait for your return, although we will not see each other at the same time, but everything may happen during the summer. From your letter I see what unrest is happening in the West in the religious and political situation. As for the papal secular power, it was misappropriated, it is high time for him to leave it, and now this is what is going on, but indifference to the faith of many, and unbelief of others is spreading greatly, and this infection is not only in the upper strata of the people, but in the middle, even in the lower; The younger generation is greedily grasping the philosophical rationalism of Kant and Hegel, and all this is penetrating into our dear Orthodox fatherland: what to expect? Faith united and strengthened all classes with a union of love and obedience to the will of God, through the fulfillment of His commandments and the teachings of the Orthodox Church, by approaching God as much as possible, having hope for a future eternal life, but without this hope and consolation, during upheavals and adventures in life, where can one find strengthening and consolation? Today's civilizers and progressives think with their minds and efforts to achieve something better for the well-being of the people, but they are mistaken! Since without a ship it is impossible to cross the seas and reach a haven of peace, so it is impossible, without faith and obedience to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, to reach the haven of the present prosperity and spiritual salvation: on the meaning of true progress in the 1st book. TV St. from. 1860 is very well expressed and interpreted. April 19, 1860. Most respected N N I learned about your new appointment and about your return to Russia on April 21st, and on May 15th I received your letter dated April 25th, by which you inform me about this; you…..describe this in detail. As a human being and according to the disposition of my heart, I rejoiced at this, both about the elevation and about the imminent return to our dear fatherland - Russia; and can see you soon, after two years. But on the other hand, in this appointment a lot of work awaits you, and of course associated with troubles, when you need to correct a lot, for the good of your neighbors, as he writes ...; May the Most Merciful Lord Himself help you in this. And don’t rely on your own reason, on your own strength, but ask for God’s help in everything: and if something happens to do something good, don’t be proud of it, but see in it the assistance of God’s admonition, strength and help, and thank Him for this mercy towards you. You yourself are afraid that this exaltation and many reviews of your work that are too flattering for you cannot but affect you, and of course not in a good way. This fear of yours will help you get rid of everything that can harm your spiritual structure, just run to the Lord with humility, remembering His word: everyone who exalts himself will humble himself, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14). And whatever good you have done, consider that you have fulfilled your duty, and cry to the Lord: not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory (Ps. 113:9); then He will cover you from pleasure with vain glory, and glorify you with true glory, bestowed from Him in your inner man, the testimony of a calm conscience, but not an opinion about yourself and your merits. It seems appropriate to recall in this case the word of our Savior Lord Jesus Christ: How can you believe, since you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that is from one God (John 5:44)? The Lord has given you an assistant....., then she, too, will ease you in sorrowful adventures with friendship, love and advice, just as she helped you in P.....e, but I ask you both, as I know you, that you are children of our Orthodox Church, reflected in her by baptism and milked with the milk of her purest teaching, remain faithful to her to the end, otherwise today there are many attacks on our dear Mother ours, the Church, from her own children, who left her teaching and were imbued with the spirit of freethinking. I am confident in your firmness, but I find it not superfluous to reinforce your piety with my word. I. M. May 17, 1860 You write, most venerable N.N., that the Lord was pleased to visit you with great misfortune, calling your beloved brother to His holy monastery, you were so upset by this grief that you did not think of having the strength to write to me about this. Of course, there is no small sorrow, having lost his friend, brother and father: a fresh wound is always sensitive, but it heals over time. You are in vain to consider his deprivation a misfortune for yourself, when you yourself write about his happiness, that he was called by God to become a saint. His monastery, the blessed death you describe and the parting words of St. by the sacraments and consecration of oil he proves that in faith and hope of eternal life he departed from this world, full of sorrows and illnesses, into the future eternal world, where there is no illness, no sorrow, no sighing. Glory to God that he was worthy of such a death, for this every Orthodox Christian should rejoice and desire to be worthy of the same Christian peaceful death. And so, you do not grieve over the fact that he has now left here, but with the spiritual hope of his eternal bliss, satisfy your grief and be spiritually consoled. Each of us is assigned a time, how long to live here, which is unknown to us, but God has appointed the end of our wanderings and resettlement into eternity: therefore, we must obey the all-wise providence of God, seeing in it the calling of your brother into eternity, no matter how long he lives here, but all the frailty must remain, and the spirit must move to another world; We are not all here forever, but each of us moves into eternity, at the behest of God; No matter how long you live here, you still have to die. “But God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; “Even if we live, if we die, we are the Lord’s, for to Him we all live” (Rom. 14:8), says St. Apostle. Your brother, although he died in body, is alive in spirit. Accept this meager word of mine as a consolation to your sorrowful soul. You also have this consolation that you pray for the repose of his soul and remember him during church services; make participants in prayers for the deceased and the poor, by giving them alms, for all this brings him joy. April 23, 1860 Most Honorable of the Lord I sincerely thank you for the memory of my thinness: in this I see your goodwill towards me; visiting our monastery left us with the memory of your piety and zeal for our Orthodox Church. I received your writing, dated April 26, on the 5th of May: you express regret about modern literature, filled not only with political questions, but also with false judgments about our dominant Orthodox religion. It pains my heart that now so many are rebelling against our mother, the Church, the children, the saints revived by her. baptism and brought up with the milk of Orthodox teaching, who left it and became infected with the spirit of Western freethinking. Magazine glasnost with free-thinking spreads like an infection into members of almost all classes; and especially the younger generation, educated, quickly strives along the path of civilization and progress, and itself does not know where and to what goal. May the Lord not allow darkness to triumph over light. It is clear that there are those who struggle in the field of the militant Church against false attacks on it. And you, for your part, took the trouble to publish two books to refute false ideas. May the Lord help you, according to the desire of your heart, having received a reward for your service, fulfill your sacred vow, bow to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and visit St. Athos, the lot of the Mother of God, the abode of monks who work for the Lord, and receive spiritual benefit for your soul. May 17, 1860. Your wife N. N. with children N. N., with your permission, visited our monastery and prayed to the Lord and the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God. I heard from them that you intend your son…. send to B—e, for training in trade and for some better education, and so that part of your nephews belongs to you. In my opinion, education is enough for your son: to be a good Christian, a kind person, a respectful son, remember the church of God, pray to God, honor the ministers of the Church of God, shepherds, listen to their teachings, work for the benefit of your neighbors and yourself, not offend anyone, maintain sobriety, chastity, and do all this with humility. Vogue is true enlightenment for him. Your condition sufficiently provides for the life of you and your children; by the grace of God you have a pure and sinless piece of bread: so that the poor and needy can have help from you; agriculture is the most fundamental occupation for people, and blessed by God Himself; be content with what God sends you from the harvest of the fruits of the earth; And besides, you also have a small trade: and it would be good not to involve yourself in long-distance troubles and not to try to gain wealth; It is said in the scripture: those who want to get rich fall into misfortunes and snares, and in lusts there are many senseless and damaging ones, which plunge a person into all-destruction and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9) and again: if wealth flows, do not apply your heart (Ps. 61:11). Thank God! In God, your son will not learn true enlightenment, and it is very no wonder that he can be damaged in morality; and so, I do not advise you to send him there, and he himself has no desire to do so; and who will you be left with after letting your son go? May the Lord give you true understanding in all matters of your life. I know your piety, you fast and pray; this is a good deed, but to this we also need other virtues, according to the commandments of God, such as: meekness, patience, simplicity, mercy, forgiveness of insults, kindness, love, and most of all, in all our deeds we must have humility: not at all consider ourselves to have done anything good, according to the commandment of the Lord: even if everything commanded is comporme, say, as We are servants without keys, who must be created, co-created (Luke 17:10). June 28, 1860 You ask my advice in your desire to leave the world and enter a monastery, to serve the Lord, finding everything secular to be fragile, and you believe only in eternal life and consider all your happiness to be in entering a monastery. I consider this desire of yours to be God’s calling to serve Him, and without it, no one will soon decide to leave the world and all its seductive charms, although they are certainly insignificant and short-lived and are often the cause of many sorrows and illnesses. Although your intention is good and favorable to God, I cannot give you direct and decisive advice, not knowing either your age or education, where and what kind of education you received; were you in the service where or not? Have you read spiritual books and which ones? Without knowing any of this, how can I give advice? However, your intention is laudable and I know the word of the Lord that: He who comes to Me I will not cast out (John 6:37). He, calling His servants to His service, says to them: take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:29.30). But while we are still struggling with many passions and have not achieved humility, we must inevitably endure many sorrows. Perhaps you think that you will immediately find peace in the monastery; but this is impossible, you must endure various sorrows and then you will find peace. In the land of our heart there are many thorns and thistles; we need to cleanse the earth of our hearts from them, that is, from passions, - and then we can see the fruits of virtue, with humility. And I can advise you, if you wish, then come to our monastery, and you can personally see our way of life and personally talk about this important subject, leaving the world and entering the monastery. May the Lord enlighten your mind with the light of true knowledge and establish your heart on the rock of His commandments and make it worthy to find the path of salvation in the monastery. July 30, I860. Although I do not have the honor of knowing you, I heard from your townspeople who visited our monastery that your family under your parents was peaceful, in harmony, and with a pious life was an example to the whole city; but now I hear that, after the death of your parent, you have developed irreconcilable enmity among each other, which everyone who knows you heartily regrets, and I, not knowing you, taking part and with heartfelt regret for you, am writing to you: I advise and ask you, leaving behind all personal and intolerable grievances, reconcile, and do not let the enemy mock you to the end. You are Christ's disciples, and He commanded us to have love, and not only for those who love us, but even for our enemies: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who harm you. (Matthew 5:44) and commanded us to forgive our neighbors all kinds of insults and insults, so that we ourselves would receive remission of our sins: if you do not forgive your neighbors their sins, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins (Matthew 5:15). How scary and terrible this is! Our life here is temporary, but there it is eternal; here everything remains, both wealth and glory, and there good or evil deeds will appear. The first will receive eternal reward, and the last will receive eternal torment, and the end is unknown! And so, leaving all your claims, reconcile and calm down; for I know that you do not have peace and tranquility, but you must value it when you remember Christ’s humility: how He, the Lord, the King of glory, humbled Himself and suffered grave insults from His creation, forgave them and prayed to His Father: Father! leave it to them, for they do not know what they are doing, and He commanded us to follow His example - to learn from Him meekness and humility and to forgive our neighbors. When you humble yourself, all the machinations and networks of the enemy will be crushed and you will receive peace. You read correctly about Titus and Evagrius of Pechersk: when one wanted to reconcile, ask for forgiveness, but the other did not forgive him, and at the same time was struck, and the first rose from his bed healthy. There are many examples in scripture about this, but now I can’t write everything. May the Lord touch your hearts and give you peace among yourself; I earnestly wish and remain I. M. August 8, 1860. Most Reverend of the Lord N N You describe the sorrows of your sisters, believing that it is because of their failure to fulfill their vows that sorrows are allowed to them, and compassionately grieve for them. I won’t argue with this, it may be so; but if they do not fulfill it due to some obstacles, and due to lack of means, then the Lord is merciful, and if they repent of this, he is able to grant them forgiveness, and what do you think, wouldn’t it be better for them to ask their spiritual father, due to the inconvenience of fulfilling this vow, to change it to something else, something convenient for fulfillment and a godly deed, to calm their conscience: then this too can be done by surrendering to his will. However, on the path of our life, sorrows are necessary, which the Lord sends to everyone, according to His strength and need. Read about this from St. Macarius of Egypt in 7 words: in the seventh word, chapters: 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, and you will see this indisputable truth. People are somehow attached to a joyful life, to contentment in everything, and so on, which the Lord called the spacious path. And where it leads is known. On the contrary, people do not favor the narrow and regrettable path that leads to the eternal belly; but the merciful Lord, although he saves us into eternal life, involuntarily leads us off the broad path and places us on a narrow and regrettable one; Therefore, we should not lose heart in sorrows, but give thanks to God, who wants us all to be saved and to come to the understanding of truth. And when we are overbearing, faint-hearted and murmuring in our sorrows, we aggravate their burden and multiply it. With grateful patience, with humility, awareness of our sinfulness and submission to the will of God, our sorrows are eased and soon pass. May the Lord enlighten your sisters and strengthen them in their everyday affairs. I wish that the Lord will comfort you, those who sympathize with them, and grant you all peace, health and prosperity. With my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 4, 1852. May the Lord help you to fulfill His will, according to the desire of your heart. You ask: does God accept a person’s sincere desire to improve and live according to His will? Will he help the one who seeks His kingdom and is happy to do anything so as not to anger Him? There is no doubt about this that God accepts our good intentions to fulfill His will and helps us in this according to our will; we must have the skill to deal with opposite cases, so that while fulfilling God’s commandments we will suffer some kind of sorrow, for the devil, hating good, tries to resist us and does not allow us to do this, either by himself through thoughts of all kinds, or through people. But we, by forcing ourselves and asking for God’s help, become more skillful in our work, and, recognizing our weaknesses, we humble ourselves; humility strengthens our good deeds and makes them pleasing to God. St. Isaac the Syrian writes that virtues cannot but be associated with sorrows and the path of God is an everyday cross. Read in the book of St. Isaac's words 34, 35, 36 and 37. You will see in them this truth and also that when fulfilling the commandments of God you need to have humility, and if the power of the commandments in us becomes impoverished, then humility intercedes for us. And when we practice virtues and want to make sure that we are already saved and just see our salvation in the palm of our hand, we are very mistaken. One must do virtues, but not see it, but attribute one’s corrections to God and His help and humble oneself truly, and not falsely. The commandment of God commands: if you do all that is commanded you, say, “For we are unworthy servants; we must do them and do them” (Luke 17:10). The Pharisee saw his good deeds and thanked God, but he was not justified like the humble publican, who recognized his sinfulness and asked God to be merciful to him. Be as careful as possible not to get carried away with opinions about your correction. For this reason we are abandoned by God's help, and that is why we fall when temptations come from our neighbors who cause us trouble; and remember that this is God’s looking to the knowledge of our weakness, so that we humble ourselves. If there are no troubles from people, then internal confusion and disorganization of the spirit serves us as an indication of pride in us and an incentive to humility. When a person humbles himself, grace surrounds him, writes St. Isaac. You want peace of mind and peace of mind, but you just can’t achieve it. ABOUT! this is a great gift of God and the Lord Himself showed us where to look for it: learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). And to achieve this, temptations and sorrows are necessary, just as the Lord Himself, before His death on the cross, suffered and endured much: He was reproached, annoyed, humiliated, and He left an image for us, so that we may follow His footsteps. Read in the book of St. Isaac's words 78 and 79, you will see that temptations are necessary and why they are allowed, and how to free yourself from them. There, more is mentioned about spiritual internal temptations and you will apply them to yourself; If you find some of these in yourself, then do not be embarrassed, but humble yourself and calm down. I will also tell you: peace and tranquility are a great reward, but just as warriors receive a reward for deeds and shedding blood, so we, spiritual warriors, must first endure many temptations and sorrows with humility, blame ourselves and not others, and having diminished (thus) our passions, that is, defeating them, and especially pride and exaltation, anger, rage, etc., then we will also be rewarded with this gift - spiritual peace. I ask for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, and with my respect I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. Forgive me for leaving the title of your secular dignity, but writing to my beloved brother about Christ. Most revered....., in your letter dated November 1, you apologize for your long silence, presenting your blessed guilt. What will I say and what guilt will I present in my silence? I have to say the same thing - sorry! For my part, I sincerely say to you, may the Lord forgive you, and I hope to receive the same word from you, and to remain peacefully. In addition, you speak about our sins before the Lord: seeing our sins, we do not correct ourselves, we repent, and we find lies before God, but worse than cattle returning to their vomit. You not only think so, but you feel and realize, and in bewilderment you say: “What should I do?” and immediately you prayerfully cry out to the Lord, that His power may be made perfect in your weakness, and so on. Therefore, you have hope in His immeasurable mercy and love for us sinners, and you are far from the pit of despair, or as St. John Climacus: “leaning on the rod of hope, you drive away the dog of despair.” St. Isaac the Syrian very comfortingly arouses people to repentance and keeps them from despair in the 7th word, on countries. 37 ff., and with the awareness of our sinfulness, advises us to resort to humility, which destroys all our sins; read his 46th word, and especially for 225 countries: “Humility and besides deeds forgives many sins, etc., also in St. John Climacus, read the 25th word or degree about this great virtue. St. Barsanuphius the Great answered his brother’s question: what is humility? In 191 answers, read what he says. How humility is acquired and what leads to humility 236, 274, 356, 494 answers, every endeavor of ours should lead us to humility, and it attracts the mercy of God to us and strengthens the virtues we practice, which we should not even see in ourselves, even if they exist. The Holy Fathers, for all their holiness, considered themselves worse than everyone else, and considered themselves inferior to all creation. This is the high dignity of humility! St. Isaac the Syrian called it the robe of the Divine, in the 53rd word. Everything that I wrote to you is not from my works, but from the writings of my fathers, which I found in my understanding necessary for you, and even more so I reminded myself, and I ask you to support each other with collective prayers. Your activities, which you write about, are useful for you in many respects: without occupation, a person is susceptible to many temptations; according to the words of the holy fathers: “become a monk because of one demon we fight, but do not do it because of the darkness of demons”; and at the same time they bring material benefit to the necessities of life. And so, may the Lord help you, both in the works of your hands and in your spiritual structure, to observe yourself in accordance with the will of God. When discussing the progress of hierarchical management, you demand my admonition on this, do you understand? In truth, I will tell you, to judge this important subject is beyond my understanding and understanding. This is the only way I understand that the head of the Church is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and the members and shepherds, who put the Holy Spirit to shepherd the Church, are the bishops and priests and the entire clergy. The dogmas and teachings handed down to us by the Church from the beginning from the Apostles and ecumenical councils and great fathers are infallible. The sacraments are holy and saving, but people are not infallible and this does not prevent those who want to be saved, those who obey the Church, and accept her dogmas and holy sacraments. St. speaks about election to the hierarchical throne. Gregory the Theologian: if everything were denied, then the entire hierarchical order could be upset, and on the contrary, he does not approve of those who jump on it. How things are going is incomprehensible to us, but if we see someone acting inappropriately to his rank, then the grace of God through many sorrows and experiences, like gold in a furnace, will tempt them, and having purified them, guide them to true reason, which we see in many, but I cannot go into the details and subtleties of actions. I believe that the Church of God will not prevail against the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18). Book of St. The Mark of the Ascetic was translated into Russian by a joint effort and those who knew it checked it with the Greek text, I cannot take upon myself that this was my work, I only had participation, then they examined and compared it with the Slavic text with Father A., ​​and corrected it in another place. This manuscript was submitted for consideration and permission to submit to the censorship of the highest clergy; when it comes out, then we will wait for censorship approval, and then we will proceed to print with God’s blessing and help. The teaching of this great man is full of spiritual benefit, but it was not accessible to everyone, due to the darkness of the Slavic translation. Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory (Ps. 113:9). Father Archimandrite, Father Abbot Anthony, and all the brethren who know you, earnestly thank you for the memory of them and mutually express their respects to you. Forgive me for writing so poorly: pen and paper and eyes change everything. Most reverent of the Lord N N Thank you for congratulating me on the New Year, and I mutually congratulate you as you enter the field of the New Year, may the Lord guide you on the right path of His commandments, and strengthen you on it with His all-powerful help; but it is necessary that on your part there be good will and effort for the better.... I sincerely regret your unfortunate weakness, to which you voluntarily enslaved. You complain that it has overcome you, and ask me to pray to the Lord, that He will send you strength to overcome this passion and come to your present situation. As much as I can, I humbly beg the Lord to grant you help, to get rid of this unfortunate passion; but we are autocratic, so it is necessary that you, having bowed your will, apply diligence to resist this destructive habit, ask for God’s help and repent of your sins, humble your thoughts and God will send you His help, for He looks down on the humble, but resists the proud. Think with your mind, what could he have done? Humble yourself, recognize your weakness and you will see the power of God operating in the humble. Have the fear of God and be afraid of what is happening to you and what may happen next if your unhappy passion continues. By humility attract God's help to yourself. Remove from yourself the reasons that lead you to fulfill this weakness; You can get by without it, as many people do, force yourself not to give in to the demands of this passion, and when it strongly forces you, fall to the Lord and humbly ask for His help. Everything is possible from God, but it is necessary that there be effort on our part, so that the Lord will deliver you from pulling those who do not approach Him with the reins and bridle of the jaw; and this special providence of God happens to people. And on you, who wants to get closer to Him, may His fatherly Providence, with the lightest punishments and visits, attract you to Himself for the benefit of your body and the salvation of your soul, which I fervently wish for you and humbly pray to God. You are writing about your daughter’s illness…..and it is still ongoing, which although you are treating, the medicines are not helping. You are advised to resort to magnetism, but you ask for my advice on whether to use this remedy to heal it? I don’t know if my advice will be valid when many people there advise you to treat. I have already written to you that this disease cannot be cured physically, but one must seek healing in faith, ask God and His saints to send her healing from this disease; while you cannot yet go with her to Voronezh, to the saint of God, St. Mitrofan, at home serve him a prayer service with an akathist and be sure to fulfill it, visit with her at the relics of the saint, how many healings there have been and are happening there through the prayers of the holy saint of God who resort to him, and God, through his prayers, will heal your daughter too. For a believer, everything is possible, but if you, having left God, resort to magnetism, an unnatural means, then I can no longer tell you anything 31. On July 9, I received your first letter, most respected N N, from... dated June 23. I am very glad that I have news about you, but it is painful and bitter to hear about your sorrows, which do not diminish, but multiply and become aggravated. Strange thing! The poor grieve that they do not have daily bread for themselves and their families, and the rich, with all the blessings and gifts sent by God, are struck by sorrows even greater than they are. What does this mean? Who is the reason for this? Our spiritual structure, and the Providence of God, arranges everything for the benefit, according to His vision, incomprehensible to us. Being in a sorrowless life, we would forget ourselves and would turn away with all our hearts towards the world and its seductive pleasures, which damage the soul and separate us from God: and when the heart is struck by sorrow, it involuntarily dies to the world, nothing deceives it; not finding consolation anywhere, he resorts to God and, of course, receives consolation from time to time. God is love, and out of His love He visits us with sorrows, seeing that a joyful life is useless for us. Holy Scripture says: because the Lord loves him, he punishes him: he beats every son whom he accepts (Prov. 3:12). It is necessary, with sorrowful heartfelt feelings, to accept in memory of God’s love and care for us for our salvation, for according to Scripture: through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), and therefore you stand on the sorrowful path leading to eternal life. Pour out the sorrow of your heart before God, showing submission to His Holy will, then He will send down the balm of consolation from His mercy, and when His will is good for you, He will completely free you from sorrows... Do not think that you are the only one who suffered, it is heard that... He is very upset and suffers from spiritual sorrow, and this is also sorrowful for you. If we reproached ourselves in our sorrows, finding the reason in our dispensation or sinfulness, then we would bear it more comfortably and would soon get rid of our sorrows; but instead we see others responsible for our sorrows, from which the sorrow multiplies and becomes aggravated, which St. explains in detail and clearly. Isaac the Syrian in 51 words. I sincerely regret your sorrows and the fact that I cannot console you as I should; this is the will of God. Pray to His goodness, and I, a sinner, dare to pray to Him to grant you peace and tranquility. What can I tell you about my health: I am not constantly sick and do not lie down, but often weaken in strength; My years seem to be the reason for this, but be the will of the Lord in everything! You write that you had a desire with faith to receive holy water, consecrated from the life-giving tree of the Cross of the Lord, with which the Lord consoled you and granted you, according to your faith, to have it. Thanks be to the Lord, who fulfills our good desires. Believe in Him that He is able to give you health and heal you from your illness. But He, since our loving Father, does everything for our benefit: sometimes He heals mental ailments with physical illnesses, and sometimes He sends illnesses to test our patience, and for a greater reward, spiritual gifts, here or in the next century: and there are many reasons that we cannot comprehend. Who has tested the mind of the Lord? Or who will be His adviser? The destinies of the Lord throughout the entire earth, and His destinies are many, but all this is incomprehensible to us, and by what paths He leads us to salvation, He alone knows, and on our part we must surrender to His holy will, so that He does with us what He pleases, and He pleases, of course, what is useful to us: in such a surrender to God, confirmed by faith, you can find spiritual consolation and relief from illness, but on the contrary, confusion and fear do not allow healing to occur, but multiply the disease, from which may the Lord deliver you. I received your enclosed contribution safely when I wrote to you, and I sincerely thank you. Asking for all of you and for your children the peace and blessing of God, I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. August 11, 1851. Thank the Lord that you have calmed down in your spiritual well-being. Give glory to God and the more you humble yourself, the more you will be calm; for God looks upon the humble, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commanded us to learn from Him: for we are meek and lowly in heart, and we will find rest for our souls. Father... gave you advice not to delve too deeply into the meaning of words when praying, because with a little omission and inattention, you become confused, and through this you can never calm down, but by reading simply, but humbly (for lack of understanding), you will calm down, and after the confusion has passed, you will have attention and understanding, i.e. (then you will receive this) when you humble yourself and humility is implanted in you, and without this you will not avoid conceit and presumption, which God opposes. God accepts the prayer of the humble and will hear their prayer (Ps. 130:18). If you have a desire to read, as you have heard that they read on the white shores or here, this is not at all disgusting; but just base yourself not on pronunciation alone, which can lead to arrogance, but more on humility. Whatever we have, whether external or spiritual, is God’s, not ours, and therefore we should not boast or attribute (anything) to ourselves and our own mind, or diligence, or strength. Again, I repeat to you: if you have humility in all your deeds and actions, then rest in peace with the grace of God. The Lord spoke with His most pure lips: without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5) and commanded: if you do everything that is commanded to you, say, for we are unworthy servants; (Luke 17:10). You see, everywhere the Lord encourages us to humility, and the King of glory Himself humbled Himself even to the eyes of a slave. So, given the lack of our deeds, for our weakness or negligence, let us humble ourselves and bring repentance before Him. Humility, according to St. Isaac, and besides works he forgives many sins, but works without humility cannot save, and this is said about true humility, and not just in words. Most honorable……. I thank you for your zeal for the beauty of the church of God: may the Lord remember her labors; I express my respects to her. I wish you and your children peace, health and prosperity, and while asking for God's blessing on you, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I.M. November 1, 1852. You have taken the death of your four-year-old baby very seriously to your heart and are deeply saddened both about her and the fact that she was not given the Holy Mysteries of Christ before her death, and you attribute this to your negligence. I am sorry for you that you are so cowardly about this incident. Of course, one cannot help but regret losing a child and remembering her illness and hardships, but this is human weakness and infirmity. You, a believing Christian, must seek consolation in faith and trust in the incomprehensible Providence of God and His love for man. Are we really created only for this life? and how short it is and filled with all kinds of sorrows, sufferings, temptations and falls, but the future age has no end. God, who leads our undeeds into the future, has now deigned to accept to Himself the young infant soul of your daughter into eternal pleasure and peace, and she has been delivered from all the troubles and sorrows that might have met her on the path of life. Don’t worry about the fact that she did not receive Holy Communion before her death; but of course, I recently partook of this Divine meal, and this did not happen because of your negligence, but because you did not hope for such a quick transition to eternity, and she is an innocent baby and the Church at the litanies does not pray for the forgiveness of infants’ sins, but: Lord rest the soul of the baby N N, in the Kingdom of Heaven. So, rest assured that this was the will of God - so that she can now move into eternity, and that there, by the goodness of God, she enjoys eternal bliss. And put aside your embarrassment, as if blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was expressed in your thoughts. This action is the enemy, not your thought; the enemy does not want goodness and peace, but outrages by various means; you do not obey him in embarrassment and do not attribute guilt to yourself in this thought. I know how embarrassed you are by many incidents that mean nothing; I talked to you a lot about this and about the reason why it happens. I thank you earnestly for congratulating me on this holiday. Your letter repeats the memory of incidents that occurred during the illness and death of your little one. ... And thereby you upset yourself and cause grief to your wife and children. There is no doubt about the future fate of your child; she will inherit eternal bliss. You need to believe and hope and reassure yourself with this. Let spiritual love prevail over natural, carnal love. You loved her, that’s why you regret that she is not with you, but has moved into eternity. But God loves her more than you, and placed her at a young age among other babies, rejoicing and enjoying eternal bliss. Do you know what could meet her in life, especially in these fierce and difficult times? Who avoids sorrows and illnesses? and the reason for these sins? But she escaped all this and is now there, where there is no illness, no sadness, no sighing, but endless life. With all your love for her and, let’s say, prudence, could you arrange a happy, painless and sorrowless life here? Let the will of God be in everything and over all of us, and our business is submission to His will. Forefather Abraham sacrificed his only son, promised by will, to God at His command. But the Lord gave you many, but took away only one; give thanks above all to God and do not lament with immeasurable sorrow. You mention the case when you read prayers for the sleep of those coming over her, and when it was necessary to turn her sick, you did not dare to leave the prayer, but wanted notice to the confusion of your thoughts. You expected it in vain. You know that in many cases you are confused and this is your mental illness, then you cannot look for information, in your confusion it is impossible to make out it. In the same answer, St. Barsanuphius said: “When someone resists embarrassment, then one should not at all consider the matter harmful, but consider it,” and so on. You talk about asking for notice, but not before death. This is written by St. Theognostus in rapturous voices. What kind of notice is this? that is, about our future afterlife, but not before death, which is most humbly possible. It seems that this applies more to those who are silent and near perfection, and we think more humbly about ourselves. Most Honorable of the Lord N N 32 We wish you and your entire family to be healthy mentally and physically, and having reverently greeted the holy fast, see it off in a soul-saving manner, so that with a joyful heart you may receive the risen Christ our Savior and Lord! The goods remaining with you can serve as a lesson for you in the future; you can get away with it, but you must not lose sight of spiritual trade, how much is gained or lost in this case; every case should be a teacher for us. Asking for peace and blessings for you and your entire family, we always remain your unworthy pilgrims: the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. February 4, 1841. It has come to our attention that when you arrived in O–, you encountered trouble in your home; The Lord was pleased to visit you with fire. If this is true, then we sincerely regret you and from the desire of our hearts, although with our meager and small word, with the help of God, we can give you some kind of consolation. Although I am sure that in all your deeds you are inspired by faith and hope in the most merciful Lord, I still find it not superfluous for a saddened heart, instead of a plaster, to send a word of consolation. Our faith is tempted by the contrary; not only does it appear to be true when we are protected by all the blessings of this world, but if even when deprived of them by God’s providence it remains constant, as can be seen in the righteous Job, who even when deprived of everything said: as the Lord willed, so it was, blessed be the name of the Lord forever: naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will depart there (Job. 1:21). We see many other examples, both in the Old Testament and in the new grace, of people being tested in faith through various sorrows and adversities. But God’s love for us is shown through such visits, according to the word of St. Scripture: For the Lord loves him and punishes him, and beats every son who accepts him; Even if you are without punishment, you are by nature adulterers and not sons (Heb. 12:7-9). You have fulfilled the duty of piety, visited holy places, worshiped the saints of God, received a lot of spiritual treasure, to preserve this in firmness, apparently, it was necessary to visit you with temptation. Receive this visitation of God with gratitude and generous patience, also strengthen your household in generous bearing, you will see for yourself that your spiritual (wealth) is golden, will be purest and most durable, and the Lord is also able to give you help and correct what was damaged by the fire and compensate for your losses. I don’t know the details of the incident, but, out of complicity, I would like to know about it, I hope that you will not deprive us of notice. Asking for the peace and blessing of God on you and on your family, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I.M. Our dear father, Father Leonid, is no longer with us! His body was hidden from us by the damp mother earth, but his soul departed into the hand of God. However, we believe that, having separated from us in body, he remains with us in spirit; his blessed death, which followed on the 11th of October, at noon at 7 o'clock and 20 minutes, confirms this to us. He crossed himself and blessed the brethren, fell asleep peacefully in eternal sleep, this very thing gives us hope that he has received the mercy of God and is interceding for us to the Lord. On the third day they buried him and there was nothing contrary to the spirit, his hands were soft as if alive and we kissed them with love, and Vasily Petrovich 33 was at the burial and triumphant, as was clear from him, he dined with the brethren at a meal, N N will tell you in more detail...; she was honored to be present during his life and at his burial. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. I am sending you and your father... the sugar bowl of my work that I could manage to make; please don't collect it. For humanity, I sincerely regret your illness, but the all-wise and humane Providence of God is greater than us - the message is that it does what is for our benefit, and it is our job to humbly accept from His hand what is sent to our temptation. I wish you to be confirmed in this thought. Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. I am sending you prosphora. December 7, 1841. I congratulate you on your journey to holy places and holy monasteries; you, like hardworking bees, wandering through the monasteries, collected spiritual honey and put it into the honeycombs of your hearts, which will serve you as consolation and strengthening on the sorrowful and difficult journey of your life; for through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), and the narrow path also leads us into the eternal life. I have the honor to congratulate you on the upcoming day of your Angel, and what can I wish you on this day? Peace and peace of mind with spiritual consolation in our sweet Lord Jesus Christ! I wish you to be worthy of accepting this with much humility, which alone has the power to preserve these gifts and calm you in all cases and changes, mental and physical. The Lord Himself commanded us to learn from Him: for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29), in order to find rest for our souls. I heard that you were not physically healthy during this time, for which I humanly felt compassion for you, but, judging spiritually, I attributed this to the Providence of God, which cares about the salvation of your soul. He is a philanthropist, although he wants to save us and accepts our free labors, but due to the lack of them or for other reasons unknown to us, he involuntarily visits us with illnesses or sorrows. I am sure that you also agree with this, and therefore accept this visit from God with thanksgiving. I wish your entire family to spend their lives in peace, health and prosperity, and may the Lord help them to walk in pleasing Him, by fulfilling His Holy commandments, which will attract God’s blessing to them. I can’t tell you anything special about myself; I spend my time equally with mental and physical infirmities. Asking for God's blessing on you, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. January 27, 1845. I thank you earnestly for your disposition towards us sinners, and I wish you and your children harmony, love for Christ, health, salvation and success in piety, and good success in trade. You complain about laziness. Yes, it often attacks those who labor in piety, and if they fail, it often takes possession. To drive away this passion, the holy fathers advise holding on to the memory of death, eternal torment and the bliss of the righteous, guided by this humility, which, bringing down the mercy of God on us, completely frees us from the captivity of laziness. I wish you this freedom in the Lord and ask it for you from the Giver of all good things. In addition, asking you and your entire blessed family for God’s blessing, I have the honor to remain with my respect for you, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. May 27, 1847. I received your scripture, sent on the 6th of October, on the 8th, by which you notify about the illness that has occurred... and you yourself feel weak in health. Ask the Lord to pray for the healing of him and you, and to let our other abodes, designated by you in the scriptures, know about this. In our monastery at the same time, I served a prayer service to the Lord for the sick for healing, we will continue to do so, and when reading the psalter we remember health, and in our monastery I let the father abbot know and asked for prayer for the sick, you and..., and in other monasteries, if there is no opportunity, then I will write on the same mail. I sincerely regret this visit due to such a sorrowful illness. We hear that many in O-e suffer from this disease, but it is not known who, and whether everyone we know is healthy. Everywhere there are prayers for deliverance from this disease and we pray to the Lord that He may have mercy on His creation and turn away His righteous anger from His people. His fate is incomprehensible to us! He punishes us with mercy: he drives us away from here in order to save us in eternity through repentance. He alone is the secret message of our hearts and nothing is hidden from Him, and each of us has an end destined before our creation, but is hidden from us, so that we may be ready at all times. May His Holy will be upon us! I wish that the Lord grants... speedy healing, and consolation for you and your entire family, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 11, 1847. Today is the memory of our late Father L. Six years have passed; Eternal memory to him. I received your most venerable letter dated September 12, and seeing that you live peacefully, calmly and prosperously, I rejoice in this and pray to the Lord that he will continue to preserve you and strengthen your strength. You write with self-reproach that you have become attached to the world and are as if immortal and without judgment. Awareness of one's weaknesses gives hope for correction. I believe that, having known the best, you will prefer it to the worst. Of course, all the benefits here are insignificant compared to those in the future, those are temporary, and those are eternal. God grant that your attachment to the world is not a passion, but that you are a master and not a slave of passions. I hope that you will not charge me for this reasoning, I wrote in response to your words. I testify to you and your entire family my respect and asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. September 17, 1849. I have the honor to congratulate you on the approaching day of your Angel, may God grant you many years to celebrate this day in health and prosperity. Our dear Vasily Petrovich, after suffering many of his exploits and labors for the good of his neighbors, went to the Lord on the 15th of January, in the apartment of P.V. A-a, about which you have already been notified from .....; he received news about this from Moscow and I wrote to him. The burial took place on the 4th day of his death, in the Danilov Monastery, near the large church church. Many people devoted to him gathered for the burial; P.V.A–b informs me about this. He ended the course of his career, and we are still wandering in this deplorable vale and do not know when we will reach the gates that lead into our fatherland. Perhaps this term is close to some of us, as we very often see our brethren leaving us; but many of us are dozing and neglecting this parting word, from them I am the first. ABOUT! so that when the Lord comes he will find us vigilant. We must pay attention! Asking for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. January 27, 1851. I have the honor to congratulate you on the approaching day of your Angel. May the Lord comfort you with spiritual, imperishable consolation and keep you in health and prosperity for many years. I hear about you that your health is becoming bad, I sincerely regret this and wish you healing. I know that you accept this illness with Christian patience and submission to the will of God, believing that out of His love He visited you with this illness. For when our outer man decays, then our inner man is renewed. May the Lord bless you and your entire family and keep you in peace and piety. With my respect, I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. January 27, 1853. Most Venerable of the Lord N N 34 We sincerely thank you for your and your husband’s visit to our monastery. Your pious disposition towards our monastery remains a monument for us, and upon your return to P..., you visited my wickedness with your venerable letter, sent on August 7th. At the present time I feel very weak and cannot write to you with my own hand, but one unanimous brother writes from dictation. That you have found peace and consolation in our monastery, the Lord has granted this to you, according to your faith and zeal for seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but in the field of life and in dealing with people you cannot always remain in such a state of spirit. The passions in us have not yet been exterminated, but lie hidden, and the troubles they inflict on us in conflicts with our neighbors, with God's permission, show us that our structure is still weak, and that we have not yet reached the measure of fulfilling the commandments of God, and therefore we must have a struggle with our passions, and recognizing our weakness, despising ourselves and reproaching ourselves, we must humble ourselves, but not be embarrassed for that we did not achieve what we wanted, and do not at all reproach others who show us our structure. Humility attracts God's mercy and help to us in our affairs. The spiritual consolation you receive cannot remain unchanged for long: it is sent from time to time, to strengthen us in temptations; those who have achieved humility enjoy it more, but nevertheless the grace of God visits them with temptations, as they are arranged, so that they do not become exalted by receiving spiritual consolations. How much more do we, weaklings, demand the fire of temptation, which consumes the thorns of our passions. Upon your arrival in P......b, you were met with sorrow, this is not surprising; This is how God’s Providence arranged it, to your temptation and knowledge of your weakness, and from this to humility, as I wrote to you above. The fact that you defended your spouse before those accusing him, not indifferently, is clearly your weakness, but you should not be embarrassed for it and be cowardly, but reproach yourself for deviating into the passion of anger, humble yourself and repent before God, and henceforth be more generous in your defense if something like this happens. Every case should be our teacher in experience. You are embarrassed that during prayer you cannot collect your thoughts, but you become distracted: praying without entertainment is the work of the perfect; But we, weak and in a struggle (with passions), must gather our wandering thoughts and humble ourselves when thoughts are found, and not be embarrassed at all, for embarrassment gives the enemy the strength to arm ourselves more against us, and humility drives him away. And if you always had pure prayer without distraction, you would again not be able to avoid vain and proud thoughts inflicted by the enemy. Remember that God accepts the prayer of the humble. You write that it is difficult to pray at home, it requires compulsion: does a special home activity distract from this? Ask, what prayers should you assign to read every day? Not knowing your home relationships, activities and strengths, I cannot say exactly, but if it is convenient for you, I suggest: in the morning, read morning prayers, and when there is time for kathisma or one glory, in the evening - prayers for the coming sleep, and during the day, in the morning or evening, a canon to the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel, on Saturday - an akathist to the Mother of God, and on Sunday - an akathist to Jesus, the Apostle and the Gospel by chapter and several bows, and all this is done with humility, not thinking that “I am doing well,” as the Pharisee thought, but in case of failure to do something, due to some obstacles, or even from laziness, not to be embarrassed at all, not to become despondent and not to lose heart, but to humble yourself and consider yourself least of all. May the Lord strengthen you in all your good intentions and deeds, and in the struggle against present sorrows and your passions, and may He give you true spiritual reason. Forgive me for not answering your letter soon; I don’t find any particular reason other than my weakness and the laziness associated with it. I believe that the most respected N N has now returned from his journey, and I greet you both with my congratulations on the end of this voyage; God grant that peace, harmony and love may be established in the circle of your family, which in the field of difficult life will serve you as relief and consolation. You, most respected N N, ask permission not to stop your correspondence with me; I dare not only forbid you, but also anyone, from writing to me, although I am weak and feeble-minded and am often guilty of a slow or unsatisfactory response. Please write as you please, but do not blame my unreasonable answers; I consider myself to be taking on this matter beyond my measure and reason; but I only hope that God is able to give reason to those who demand by faith what to write. And a simple word, unadorned by floridity, whoever accepts it with faith will receive benefit with the help of God; and therefore it is necessary to feel and say: not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory (Ps. 113:9). You want to maintain concern for the salvation of your soul, which, apparently, you are actually doing; say that there is a continuous struggle going on within you, and every day new shortcomings appear, and this is necessary in the feat of a Christian: we are in battle against the spirits of evil, they fight us with our own passions. We are sometimes defeated and win, we fall and rise, and as we humble ourselves we receive God’s help. This powerful weapon against enemies is necessary for us. But how can we reconcile ourselves when, through our shortcomings, we do not recognize our weakness? They humble us. Read in the 1st part of the Philokalia, by St. Gregory of Sinaita, in the 117th chapter, at the end of it: “Unless man is defeated……. can't come to terms with it." It is written in detail and very useful. I notice in you that you want to live in the world, like a hermit’s life, without falling, and so that your soul is always with God, and you ask the question: is it possible in the world to reach such a state in which you can cut off your desires, as in solitude? And how to start such a business? And at the same time, in response, you received strong resistance to your good intentions: and you, not having spiritual strength and humility, cannot resist them. This means that you undertake or desire to perform a feat in your life beyond your measure and structure. We must begin by doing the commandments of God, commanded to us in the Gospel, and while trying to fulfill them, seeing our efforts and weakness, not be embarrassed at all, but humble ourselves and repent. And even if you walked the path of God’s commandments unswervingly, then beware of danger on the other side: the enemy will not leave you, deceiving you with arrogance and opinion about his correction, and subtly catching you with them. And you do not yet have humility, but seeing yourself fulfilling the commandments, you can imperceptibly deviate into these thoughts. It is necessary to keep in mind the word of the Lord more often: even if you do all that is commanded, say, “For we are unworthy servants; With this you can drive away arrogance. But since we are still far from fulfilling God’s commandments, we must involuntarily humble ourselves and repent, as St. Mark the Ascetic writes in his word on repentance. We always demand repentance, but we want to see our corrections; how does Saint Ephraim say in prayer: “Hey, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother.” This is not so much about deliberately sinning, but about seeing sins committed before and now, and not at all despairing, but repenting, considering yourself in your mind to be the last of all. St. Peter of Damascus, in the 3rd part of the Philokalia, after seven physical works, writes on page 18: “and then the mind begins to see its own sins, like the sand of the sea. And this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health.” You see, after performing many virtues, he sees his sins, and not corrections. Read the 55th word of St. Isaac the Syrian, where he points directly to the commandments of God, but does not advise seeking high visions. I advise you to try to fulfill the commandments, but not to be embarrassed when you happen to sin, but to repent and humble yourself: when there is a guarantee of humility in your heart, then you will have help from God in good deeds and in avoiding evil ones. And the reason for our efforts is St. John Climacus believes pride: “where the Fall occurred, pride preceded it.” Let us try to acquire humility through our weaknesses, for it is the destroyer of pride, which we do not even notice in ourselves. You grieve for the condemnation of your neighbors; if we humble ourselves, then we will not judge them. Let us pray with humility, like the publican’s prayer, then the Lord will accept it, for He accepts the prayer of the humble and hears their prayer, but we ourselves cannot value our prayer, that we pray earnestly, God knows the value of it, otherwise it is dangerous - if it were not Pharisee. You are at a loss about fasting; having visited your relatives, you have to have dinner and eat fast food, but demand that they prepare fast food for you, you are afraid to give a reason that you are putting yourself above others, and exalting yourself. You ask what to do in this case? I’m not putting any restrictions on you, but I’m giving this advice: in my opinion, don’t be afraid to ask your family to prepare a Lenten meal for you. This does not mean showing yourself to be superior to others. Not at all, you are fulfilling your duty and obedience to the Church, what should you do to exalt yourself? Looking at you, there will be other imitators of you. And if you eat modest food, then others will be carried away by your example, and will not worry about the fact that they are sinning, but you will be guilty of this purely - for yourself and for others. What do you care about what they say about you, do not listen to it, and be calm. If your relatives eat due to illness, then this is more excusable, but of course they too should repent of this. And if you use it this way only out of fear of negotiations, then it’s not clever. Do you know what the Lord determined for disobedience to the Church? When working something for the Church, it would seem that you should not abandon your essential responsibilities; it is not a matter of time; you can do both. You always considered yourself to be patient, and of course you consoled yourself with this, but this is not useful. And now your weakness has been revealed, incidents touch you, worry you, and you recognize your impatience and weakness. We need to come to terms with it. When it comes to satisfying your neighbors' bills, you faithfully fulfill them according to your conscience, and there is nothing for you to be embarrassed or doubt about this. Because you think that you will seem disgusting to me, after the infirmities you described, I will not praise you, and that your letter was difficult for you. Find out for yourself where the ego comes from. From this I understand more about your disposition towards the Lord for my evil, and I will sympathize with you in your weaknesses, offering you advice according to my strength. And if you had written only about your corrections, then I would not have found anything to write to you. May the Lord bless you, enlighten you and strengthen you in the pursuit of spirituality and Christian life. I wish you, your husband and children peace, health and salvation, and with my respect I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. November 8, 1858. I received two of your letters, dated November 7 and November 17. In the latter you write about receiving my letter of November 8, and that through it you received consolation. God bless! Give thanks to Him, who gave me a word for your consolation, but I am nothing. Thank you to the Lord for the successful completion of N N’s journey and return to you. You find two opposite actions in your mental structure: exaltation and despair. Of course, you understand that this comes from the enemy, and you cannot fight him, and both of these actions are very difficult for the soul. Maybe you understand the reason for this? As they write St. fathers, they come from spiritual pride, but due to a lack of humility, it is difficult to resist them, and in both cases one must humble oneself. In the first (despair) - to cast all your weaknesses and sins into the abyss of God's mercy, to lament and repent for them, but to hope for mercy: for the Lord shed His most pure blood for sinners. And even though we have all fulfilled the law, we should not hope for salvation from our works, but consider ourselves unbreakable slaves, according to the word of the Lord. Read y St. Mark of the Ascetic in the word about those who think to be justified from works; You will find many chapters where it does not give you the right to hope for deeds, but how to fulfill them as a duty. And in order not to despair, then read St. Isaac the Syrian in the 7th word, on page 37, and St. Peter of Damascus, in part 3 of the Philokalia, on folio 58 on the reverse: “for it is not proper to despair, even though many will sin,” and on folio 64 on the reverse. “For great good is true repentance.” You will find in them many fortifications against despair. And in the second (exaltation), by remembering your weaknesses, sins and transgressions, cast down the praising thoughts that come to you: and in what way, read from St. Isaac in 21 words, on page 120, and in 46 words on page 224, and at the end on 225 and 226 at the beginning, and in the superscript to the book of Nilus of Sora on page XLV; and there are many more fatherly teachings about this, but I leave it to you to experience for yourself, and I wrote only what is necessary. And in the struggle against this, you did not have the strength to drive away these thoughts, because you did not act humbly, but wanted to drive them away on your own; one must humbly cry out to the Lord: “have mercy on me, for I am weak,” and not be embarrassed; they will leave. And if you are embarrassed, your enemies will rise up against you. And the fact is that you, aware of your wrongness, but try to justify yourself before others and reach the point of irritability, you yourself find that it comes from a lack of humility; and therefore we must try to gain this great treasure - humility, which always gives us peace. The fact that you try to notice moral shortcomings in yourself will help you acquire humility, and go ahead - guard against them. The quality of almsgiving is a heart that burns with love for every creature and desires its good. Almsgiving does not consist in alms alone, but in compassion, when we see a created person akin to us in some kind of suffering, and if we can help him in any way, we help. This (alms) is depicted in the 6 commandments of the Gospel of Matthew ch. 25. And almsgiving is only a part of alms, it must be done according to one’s strength, without embarrassment and dispute, even if it is not a lot to give, but with good will and hope, according to the word of the Lord: whatever you do to one of these lesser brothers of mine, you do to Me (Matthew 25:40). Do not be embarrassed about the fact that sometimes there is absent-mindedness during prayer, I have already written to you about this. Humble yourself and calm down, and over time your thoughts will calm down. This is also a scolding of the enemy. When we take up prayer as a weapon, he (the enemy) becomes weary of it, but is driven away by humility. And when you are embarrassed, he will arm himself more. The petition for the kingdom of heaven should be our first subject; but, living in peace with your family, you can also ask for everyday things, or as the Church asks every day: “grant good and beneficial things to our souls,” and so on. The Lord said: ask and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7). But he gives us what is useful and necessary for us. You cannot, having lived in the world and had children, position yourself in such a way as to have nothing and give everything away, but you must observe a prudent middle, not shy away from the world and not become addicted to it. If you need things for children, you can save them, but if you don’t need them, then give them to those in need. May the Lord bless your dear children, may their childhood feeling for piety grow with them and bear fruit for salvation. I accept their zeal and love for my thinness and send them my unworthy blessing. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius, who truly respects you. November 29, 1858. I have not yet had time to respond to your letter of December 17, as I should, but I have already received your most respected letter of January 18, with which you congratulate me on the day of my Angel; God save you for your zeal for my evil! Thank God, you find solace in reading the books of your fathers, although you admit that you are not getting much done in your work, and that it is difficult to constantly monitor your actions and thoughts. But it is also good that, by reading books, you recognize yourself as failing in doing what you should, you recognize your weakness and from this you humble yourself; but God looks upon the humble and gives His help. And you, apparently, want to steadily go about correcting everything that should be done; and when you could do this, then of course it would console you, and at the same time you would be drawn into the opinion of yourself that you live pleasing to God; by which your good deeds could be darkened. Although these are the enemy’s excuses, due to inexperience you can get carried away by them: the enemy does not cease to fight us - if not for sinful actions, then for praise about his deeds. Love for God is proven by the fulfillment of His holy commandments, but this is also His commandment: if you do all that is commanded, you say, “For we are unworthy servants; This is humility. “Just as salt is in every food, so humility is needed in every virtue,” writes St. Isaac in word 47: and St. Abba Dorotheos likens the correction of good deeds to the building of a house: “just as every stone is strengthened with clay (mortar, which is an image of humility), so every virtue must be strengthened by humility.” The Holy Fathers, with all their holiness, considered themselves earth and ashes, and had themselves under all creation. So, do not grieve over this, that you do not achieve the fulfillment of virtues, but, testing yourself, what you have sinned in, humble yourself and bring repentance. In the 3rd prayer for those coming to bed, many possible everyday sins are explained, for which we offer daily repentance. In your previous letter you asked me about doubts about our rituals, which rituals you have doubts about, I don’t know, but I will say that everything that is arranged in our Church is everything external for the explanation of the spiritual, about which you can read the book The New Tablet. I am sending you a small book about miraculous icons, from which you can see why some have miraculous power and others do not. There is also a discussion about the incorruptibility of St. relics, I don’t remember what year it was printed, but there is a second edition about icons.... You ask what causes boredom, and you AND N? It is impossible to do without this, it is a spiritual cross sent to our test, there is gloom, languor, unaccountable boredom and despondency. This also happens to those who pass through spiritual life, as you will see in the book of St. Isaac the Syrian, in the 88th word on 461 pages, and in the 79th word on 434 pages, there is also written medicine for this - a humble heart. Read also in the 4th part of the Philokalia, y Rev. John of Carpathia chapters 70 and 71, and accept this cross with humility and patience, and after this time there will be spiritual consolation. The Monk Macarius of Egypt also talks about this. He likens such a gloomy dispensation to gloomy weather, storm, rain, etc., and after that it is clear and clear; and in the 2nd part of the Philokalia by Callistus and Ignatius ch. 43. Believers should not have prejudices and believe in dreams; dreams can be from enemies, in order to confuse a person with a future accident. Without God's providence or permission, nothing can happen to us, so we must be affirmed by faith and humbly accept what will happen, and not believe in dreams. It was in vain that you imposed vows on yourself, but having not fulfilled them, you are embarrassed, but you have even forgotten the vows, ask me to assign you something to fulfill for them. You yourself, according to your strength, can replace them with something, but I don’t know either your strength or the time to fulfill any satisfaction. You can bow at least 3 times a day, to the Savior and the Mother of God one at a time, at least for six months, and during this time read the canon of repentance, at least once a month, show compassion for your neighbors, if you can help in any way, and not be embarrassed, but humble yourself and be calm. I ask for you and your children the peace and blessing of God; with my deepest respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. Forgive me for writing poorly, my hands don’t serve me well; there are a lot of letters, and I am in unpaid debt for them, both due to weakness and lack of time. January 24, 1859. I am already in debt to three of your letters with answers, the last of them, dated the 14th of February, I received only yesterday on the 22nd, but I don’t know why it took so long. First of all, I answer this: you ask: how to carry out this holy fast in relation to food? If you agree with Typik 35, then you find that for N. N., due to his studies and labors, it will be unbearable, and his physical strength will betray him, although he has a firm intention to follow this decree. To this I will tell you: the decree of the Church is equal to everyone and everyone is obliged to comply with the consumption of food, and I do not dare to contradict the statute. But you need to have reasoning, which St. the fathers call it: “a certain eye of the soul and a lamp.” This teaches a person to leave immensity in both and to walk the royal path (take the trouble to read for yourself the words of the Monk Cassian to Abbot Leontinus about the reasoning, in part 4 of the Philokalia). If you accept the reasoning in this case, you will find that it is more convenient for those who have dedicated themselves to moving away from the world to bear such a decree. They are not busy with anything external and are not obliged to deal with everyday life, and even more so with official and important matters, then although they are exhausted and remain (therefore) in inaction, they will not give an answer for their omission. And those who are obliged, and even with important matters and cannot tolerate omission, then it is necessary to indulge the body by strengthening food during this fast: I don’t mean about fish, but about oil, with which food prepared strengthens the body’s composition more than dry eating. The matter is different, when you are fasting, that is, preparing to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, then you need to leave the oil. In the very rules of the Apostles and Fathers it is said: “except for weakness”: and isn’t this weakness - when the body becomes exhausted from fasting and is not capable of performing important duties? The time for eating food should also be in accordance with the strength and strength of the body. It doesn't seem inappropriate to do as you write. But if you believe that you are transgressing by this failure, then you must resort to humility, which in any case is necessary and useful, and forgives many sins, according to the word of St. Isaac the Syrian (page 46). And when arrogance and self-importance become entangled in the correction of fasting or any other virtues, and creep up so much that they imperceptibly blind a person’s mind, even though he does not speak with his lips like a Pharisee, but through one opinion he already has a Pharisee’s mind and will not receive justification. In the word about reasoning, you will see how the great feats of the past were carried away into arrogance. Your first letter dated January 26th was received only on February 1st. Are you asking if you can begin to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ twice during Lent? It is very possible and should, unless something prevents it. The Church commandment commands to begin confession and Holy Communion during all fasts. Tain, busy people or common people should start at least once a year. You find it difficult to prepare for confession because you cannot put your thoughts in order. If you come to confession with the humility of a tax collector, you will not be embarrassed. Repentance is a gift of God, given to us through His suffering. We, recognizing ourselves as sinners, approach Him as a humane Father and Redeemer, according to His mercy, and there is nothing of ours here, but only one sin, confessing it without justification and receiving justification from the Lord. It’s all the enemy’s machinations that are confusing you. Go simply and cry to the Lord: “Forgive those who have sinned.” Here, explain the sins that lie on your conscience, and you will depart in peace and hope in God’s mercy. I, it seems, wrote to you from the book of Peter of Damascus that a person, after many corrections of virtues and deeds, begins to see his sins like the sand of the sea, which he calls the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and the sign of its health, and the soul becomes contrite and humble, and considers itself truly the worst of all, but is not embarrassed, for humility itself calms it. I advise you not to be embarrassed if you see things differently than you would like to prepare for confession, but humble yourself and be at peace. But according to your expression, you are sad to see such a bad heart in yourself, and the above shows you that when we see our ulcers, we involuntarily humble ourselves, repent and receive the mercy of God. If you saw a good heart in yourself, then with this imaginary consolation you would deceive your eyes, and, relying on your corrections, you would conveniently fall into pride, blinding the eyes of your soul, from which may the Lord deliver you. Struggle is necessary in the spiritual structure: through it we get to know ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, and become skillful or experienced. In your second letter dated February 8th you write that you understood somewhat your dispensation after reading the 79th word of St. Isaac the Syrian, but you admit that you do not have a middle ground, but are carried away by reading spiritual books, and being part of the world, you should devote time to activities for children, and you propose a difficult question for me regarding reading foreign books, can these books harm you? If I tell you the opposite, I may make you sad. You need to practice foreign languages ​​for children, and if I agree with you, then I am afraid that I will sin: customs corrupt, good conversations are evil. And the good seed sown in the village of the heart, when tares are sown on it, will it not harm the good seed? And by remembering the tares, the enemy will have a reason to fight against piety. If you need to read foreign books, then still not novels. What a pity that the world today demands to know foreign languages ​​better than your own; How many foreign books are published with content that harms both religion and morality, but they are read with greed, carried away by the pleasantness of the style: scratchy ears, according to the word of St. Apostle (2 Tim. 4:3). I don’t forbid you to write to me, but I just can’t rely on myself to be able to answer satisfactorily, and I’m slowing down, sometimes due to lack of strength, and sometimes due to lack of time from working with people. The more you try to listen to yourself, you encounter bewilderments; for example, you pray about some matter, it seems, diligently and with full faith in God’s help, and it turns out that the matter will not succeed, or even harmful consequences will occur: you ask, what is the reason for this? You have a good intention and think that the deed is good, but it may be displeasing to God, or there is no time to fulfill it, then failure happens, and you do not need to grieve about it, but leave it to the will of God. He knows more than us what is useful to whom. It is inconvenient for you to enter into a dispute about faith with Lutherans in detail, but to say that our faith is conciliar and apostolic, Orthodox-Catholic, many books have been written about their faith that prove that it is wrong and a departure from the true Orthodox Church. Books exposing the wrongness of their faith: the stone of faith, where all their untruths are explained in great detail. More evidence about the true religion in relation to the Protestant Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov about their faith, and that they do not have an ordained priesthood, and there is more, but where can you deal with them? It is good to serve requiem services and give alms for the departed, and most of all it is good to remember at proskomedia, but only in the Lutheran faith our Church does not remember those who have departed. During their lifetime they had no communication with her, so what about after death? Only Orthodox Christians are commemorated, just as at litanies they read about all the departed: “Orthodox Christians lying here and everywhere.” For the preservation of Orthodoxy in your children, try to instill this teaching and pray to God about this. Unfortunately, nowadays people talk and write about religion so freely everywhere, not for creation, but for doubt; sensuality takes over, and the younger generation is more inclined to freedom, rather than to curbing feelings, and gives freedom to reason, even though it is darkened. But, however, there is no need to despair, but ask God to save their young hearts from free-thinking, and try to instill in them, according to the concepts of their age, about the Orthodox Church and piety, that what is written in a young heart will be more firmly established in adulthood, just as words written on a young fruit are more clearly depicted in a ripe one. When going to church with them, you can lightly talk about what church means and who they serve in it - the Most High God, our Creator, and that He knows and sees what we not only do and say, but also think. He rewards for good deeds, and punishes for pranks. It is necessary to take people with you to church often or rarely, at the discretion of their location, and sometimes out of conviction; and especially on major holidays, you need to take them with you. Your son has shown in practice his zeal for our monastery, he has established a collection of alms from his relatives, and we will soon receive the 3 rubles he sent. 50 kopecks silver The Lord bless his young heart to the knowledge of the truth and to the love of God, but love is born from fear: by the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil (Prov. 15:27), but not to dream that we do good things out of love, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7). And on all your children, on N N., and on you, may the Lord send His blessing, and give peace, health, prosperity and salvation. With my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. Forgive my awkward letter, I wrote very absent-mindedly, they tore it off many times and did not allow the matter I started to finish. February 23, 1859. I have the honor to congratulate you on the approaching highly solemn and all-joyful holiday of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May He vouchsafe you and your dear children to spiritually celebrate this holiday with heartfelt joy and in perfect health. Now I turn to you, most venerable N. N., with a response to your most venerable letter of March 22, sent on the 31st. You write that you have come to terms with the idea that for the rest of your life you will have to wage a war with your own passions. Yes, it is necessary, and St. While the fathers achieved dispassion and perfect peace, everyone had this struggle, through this we recognize our weakness and bad dispensation, and involuntarily we must humble ourselves. But you want not only to be good and have nothing bad, but also to see yourself as such. Desire is commendable, and to see one’s good qualities is already the food of self-love. Yes, even if we did everything that was commanded, we should all consider ourselves to be inextricable slaves, and we, even though we are faulty in many ways, do not think of ourselves as such, and therefore we are embarrassed, instead of humble ourselves, therefore God does not give us the strength to fulfill it, so that we do not become exalted, but humble ourselves and acquire a guarantee of humility; and when we have it, then our virtues will be strong and it will not allow us to ascend. Human praise does no harm if we do not enjoy it; and if we accept with pleasure, then according to the word of St. Isaac: (such) “there is a free worker,” i.e. deprived of bribes or retribution. To your question about reading the akathist, if you don’t have time to read it in due time, due to lack of it, can you read while sitting while working? I answer that there is no need to do this: is it really a master’s rent, which is strictly extorted from people, and when someone pays it, then he is at peace? Not at all, freedom is sought from us. If for some reason you do not fulfill it in due time, then bring repentance and consider yourself a humble debtor, but do not be embarrassed, it will be better than what you say somehow, and you will be carried away by the thought that you have fulfilled it and no longer owe it, but humility will remain on the sidelines. And it is known that God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19), and the Mother of God will also accept your will and humble consciousness better than a confused performance. Difficult and sad spiritual cases that you encounter that hurt your heart should not lead you to grumbling. These are necessary on the everyday path, to the test of our will and freedom, and there will be no benefit if we always abound in either spiritual or worldly consolation. Read y St. Isaac in the 78th word on page 430 “when you have found peace, etc.” and take this for your edification. You will not give responsibility for the morality of people, especially hired ones, but, seeing their evasion, you can say that you find them bad. I’m sorry that I can’t write about all the items in your letter now, the post office is awaiting delivery. Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, I remain with my respect, the unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. April 4th, 1859. To your letter, most respected IV N., dated the 26th of April, I would like to answer at least briefly: I ask you not to think that they said in your letters that they should not, I don’t see anything like that. You write that on that day you discovered a lot of bad things in yourself: what of this? I believe that it is beneficial that if we see something bad in ourselves, then we involuntarily humble ourselves and repent before God, but we cannot praise him when we see good in ourselves (Pharisees). We must do good, but not think that we have done it: let God appreciate it, not ourselves, but we need to look at our own sins and not judge our neighbors. What is the whole St. Pentecost and we asked the Lord. We see ascetics of piety, holy men, who considered themselves inferior to all creation and worse than everyone else, and teaching us the same to consider ourselves as such: and this is because they acquired the guarantee of humility in their hearts, so they did not consider the virtues they practiced great, but like cultivating the land and sowing, which, with the help of God, can over time bear the fruits of dispassion, which you can see in the book of St. Nil Sorsky, in the superface on pp. XLI ff. What an important matter, that you lost my letter, and were so worried about it, having read it, of course, I remembered the matter, and that’s enough for you, but from this you also derived prejudices that you thought to be alien to. I also noticed envy behind myself, which I also thought you didn’t have, and you don’t notice how you get carried away with opinions about your corrections; but enough has been said about this above. Having entrusted the care of your children to the Lord, you are calm that He will arrange them according to His goodness: and if it is His will that they should know the burden of the vanity of this world before you, then He is able to arrange this too, if it is useful for them. You try to educate them Orthodox-religiously, humbly, plant the seeds of virtues on their young hearts, then what was planted in their youth will bear fruit in due time, even if they deviated a little through conversion. I see this in many people and even in those around me. Regarding theaters, now you can turn them away because of their youth, and what is incomprehensible and unhelpful for them, and although there are brothers, they are older, or some other reason can be imagined, and later, when they enter the community, you cannot be deterred from this, but for now not allowed, because of their early age. Yes, they should have you as an example, that you do not go to these spectacles, having learned that they only enchant sensuality, but do not bring benefit to the soul, and interest 36 is wasted in vain, and not for practical purposes. I cannot give an exact purpose for reading the books of the fathers; they are not written according to a scientific system, but simply about various passions and virtues, how to resist the former and acquire the latter. There are also high subjects for the perfect. When you read books, what is accessible to your mind and suits your structure, then assimilate to yourself, and what exceeds your understanding, then after reading, leave it like that, without delving into the depth of understanding, it may open up over time; for infants, solid food is inconvenient. Read books from the beginning, continuing in a row, but not all one, but in the morning read one, in the evening in another, read not for curiosity, but for teaching piety and knowledge of your weakness, and from this come to humility. Eating meat food at the permitted time is not at all bad for the worldly, but is permissible, but moderate abstinence is useful in everything. Do not take on greater feats than yourself. Chilling and disturbing thoughts have many differences: the admonition or attack of a thought has no sin, but it is the temptation of our autocracy, to what it bows - whether to them or to resistance to them, and when there is a combination and combination with these passions, it is considered a sin and subject to repentance. Not being able to resist them ourselves, we must resort to God, cast aside our weakness and ask for His help, and ask the Mother of God for help with them. When someone is overcome by thoughts, this is a sign that pride has preceded them, and therefore one must be more humble through them. I pray to the Lord to send His blessing on your spouse, on you and on your children, and I remain the wisher for all of you peace, health and prosperity, and salvation, unworthy pilgrim, much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. That’s how bad I am, having received your letter, most respected N N, on the 3rd of June, sent on the 28th of May, I still could not get ready to answer until I had already received your second letter, dated 6th of June, the 11th. You ask: is there a way to completely eradicate the feeling of irritability? Irritability, or the furious part, is one of the three parts of the soul, given to us not to be angry with our neighbors, but to have zeal against sin, and when we are angry with our neighbors, we do it against nature. Irritability in us comes from pride. The Lord commanded us to learn from Him that He is meek and humble in heart, and that we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). How to resist the furious part and the resulting anger, read from St. John Climacus, degree 8 and 24, y St. Cassian in the Philokalia, part 4, about the 8 passionate thoughts, also by the teacher. Nile of Sorsky, and if possible resist them, and if defeated, humble yourself. Indecision in action reveals our double-mindedness. You do the right thing by praying to God to instruct you what to do, and do as your conscience dictates. If it turns out that it doesn’t turn out the way it should be, then blame yourself for this, reproach yourself, humble your wisdom, and surely this matter will no longer bring harm. The opinion of a “pious man” that it is not good to get used to expressing everything that is heavy on the heart, but that one must accustom the heart within itself to process what is heavy, does not agree with the instructions of St. Fathers who advise do not trust their own reason, but the advice of those who have succeeded. Read about this from St. John Climacus in the 1st and 4th degrees, at St. Abba Dorotheus’s 5th teaching, that one should not rely on one’s own reason, is in the 4th part of the Philokalia by St. Cassian's word to Leontin the abbot about reasoning; y St. Barsanuphius you will find a lot of clear instructions about this, which you can find in the alphabetical index. This way of life is necessary for those going through an active life: but when they get used to it and succeed in dealing with questions, then they can process the difficult things within themselves, and even more so when they have no one to open up to; however, even those resort to the well-known teachings of the fathers on a subject in which they are perplexed, such as St. Isaac in the 79th word - what kind of healing should have during the burden of despondency, and so on. And it is so easy for those who have not yet been trained in spiritual work to process the heavy within themselves, close to arrogance and arrogance. Perhaps there are such ascetics and humble ones, but they are rare; and rarity is not the common path. The most merciful Lord and the Mother of God saved you from injury, saved you from a useless trip to the dacha and returned you home, where your presence was needed. Isn’t it obvious that God’s providence preserves you according to your faith, and as His finger showed His fatherly providence? Glory and thanksgiving to His bounties! In the second letter you ask why such an action happens to you that when you read the books of your fathers, your heart burns with the desire to move forward, and when you hear that among the worldly there are people of spiritual life, then you become terribly sad and you seem to lose hope of becoming better. It seems that this comes from the fact that you consider yourself lower than monastic life, and higher than the laity, then this subtle pride worries you. How can people not be pleasing to God in the world, when the city cannot stand without them, this is proven to us by the Lord’s answer to Abraham that ten for the sake of the righteous will not destroy the city, and when he brought Lot and his family out of Sodom, the city perished. You also ask what to do when you find fear in the form of a reproach of conscience, but you don’t know anything about yourself? Although you have a good intention to look after yourself and improve in everything, you are already taking the matter beyond measure and your structure, and simply say, according to the Russian proverb: so as not to pry the needle, that is, not to be guilty of anything, and subtle vanity incites you to this, and therefore you cannot avoid embarrassment. We must despise this, and try to see our sins and weaknesses, which I already wrote to you about, this makes us involuntarily humble when we see our poverty, and humility calms us down. After all, a humble and repentant sinner is more acceptable before God than a proud and unrepentant righteous man. Those who live calmly with their piety and are not embarrassed, this is because they do not stretch themselves high, but live simply, and you try to listen and watch yourself, but not humbly, then the enemy attacks you with confusion. There is no need to submit to this, but to despise it, otherwise it’s not surprising to fall into delusion. It is very dangerous that there is bewilderment and embarrassment at every step, although you avoid everything secular. This is demonic cunning and the abuse of the enemy, rising up against you and depriving you of peace. It seems I wrote to you to read in the book of the teacher. Nil Sorsky, in the superscript on it from page XL, with what intention many practiced great virtues and those with talent, but did not consider that they were doing anything good, and their goal was, having freed themselves from passions, to achieve dispassion, but some tried to imitate their virtues and thought that they were practicing virtue, then what harm comes from it, read it - you will see. And further on page XLV the answer to the question: how can those who do virtue not think that they are doing good? It seems he also wrote about how St. writes. Peter of Damascus, when you see your sins like the sand of the sea, this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health, and from this the soul becomes humble and the heart is contrite, and from this peace is born. Again the question is: are you following the proper goal? Our goal should be: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that is, the fulfillment of God’s commandments, purifying our passions and giving us peace and hope of salvation, according to the ineffable love of God, and not from our works, for even though we do everything commanded, we must consider ourselves inextricable slaves. And while we are still in passions, work is necessary to remove these tares from our hearts. But there is no need to strive and quickly want to achieve dispassion and peace, this requires time, work and the help of God, and everything that is quickly achieved is soon lost. Do not be discouraged and do not be embarrassed, but surrender to the will of God. And in this, that you need to help your neighbors who suffered from a fire, you need to have reasoning: you need to give according to your strength, and have compassion for them, but if you gave away all your property, could you satisfy all their needs? But you have a family, and you need to live, although not luxuriously, but decently. Here, too, there is the machination of the enemy, causing embarrassment to you, and if you had given a lot, you would again bring embarrassment upon embarrassment, which is what you did, deprived your family, and so on. It’s better if we resign ourselves, then we’ll find peace. Based on your intention to fast this week, I believe that today you have already been rewarded with the great gift of communion of the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ, with which I heartily congratulate you, and may this sacrament be your salvation. Asking for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation, the unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. June 13, 1859. Glory to God, who admonishes you, most revered N N, and who gives you peace in the awareness of your weaknesses, and that from them you come into humility! Having a good will to fulfill the will of God, we also need God’s help, and moreover, we must not forget this commandment of God: if you do all that is commanded, say, for we are unworthy servants. For what we ought to have created, we have created (Luke 17:10). This is humility. If we cannot accomplish something due to weakness and negligence, then we will again resort to humility and repentance. And to stand steadily and without falling is impossible. Read about this in the Philokalia, in the 2nd part of Callistus and Ignatius, chapter 43, it will serve you and forward to admonition and strengthening. You live in the middle of a world where there are many cases and collisions that lead to creep, and during these you should not lose heart, but humble yourself and repent. It is known that the enemy does not sleep, but like a lion he goes about roaring, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter. 5:8), if he does not manage to introduce some gross vices and inclinations, then he inspires arrogance and compels us to condemn others: and therefore, through our small faults, which happen with God’s permission, we are kept within the boundaries of humility. It seems that this could be a hindrance for you, and may the Lord help you to follow the middle, humble path. To your question about the revelation of your actions, where it is necessary to touch upon the actions of others, are you afraid that through this you will not fall into the condemnation of your neighbors, and therefore you do not write? I will say that if the need arises, one should not be afraid of this; You are not writing to judge others, but wanting to have a solution to your bewilderment, which, according to your faith, the Lord sends to you. May the Lord help you, in the clean air with N N and with the children, to calm down and renew your physical health. I ask God’s blessing for all of you and remain the desirer of your health and salvation and the unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. You are worried, you often think about what you could do for me, I owe a lot to your goodwill in the Lord for my badness, rest assured, and if I need anything, I will write myself. You ask why such embarrassment came over you during the all-night vigil, when you wanted to pray fervently? It seems that she was arrogant, that she wanted to pray and thought that “I’ll pray,” but she was faced with temptation. For every good deed is either preceded or followed by temptation, and without this it will not be firm. If you had to resign yourself to your temptation, then there would be no embarrassment; and when you are already embarrassed, then reproach yourself for it, and not others. Confusion comes from a deposit that resides in our hearts, and whoever we think is the culprit of it, we are mistaken, for it only shows us our dispensation through God’s gaze towards our correction. There should be no doubt about the food for…..prepared. There is, God bless the babies (Ps. 115:5), but when doubt has already prevailed, there is little to taste. To the question, should you ask for forgiveness from those to whom you have caused some kind of trouble? When you ask, ridicule and sharp words come out of it, to which you are afraid to be subjected. One must have reasoning and consider people and cases, the location of the former and the importance of the latter. If someone is offended by you, and you know that he will accept your apology with love, then you can ask for forgiveness, especially when he is sharply offended by you. But this cannot be done until you internally recognize your guilt and blame yourself. And if you know that those people whom you have offended will accept your apology with ridicule, then you do not need to apologize to them, but blame yourself in your heart, and mentally ask them for forgiveness, then you need to calm down. You ask about bows, how many should you make? I cannot prescribe exactly how much, but everyone must fulfill it according to his strength, ability and diligence. Of course, you can make at least 30 bows, and in case of weakness, even less, if you have the will and zeal, then you can do more, but you must avoid vanity and conceit and do everything with humility. In your last letter you say that you have a lot to write about something, but at that time you didn’t have time: I’ll wait, and when God enlightens and helps, I’ll write and answer, but I can’t vouch for the speed. I express my respect to the most venerable N N and, asking for God's blessing on you and your children, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation, the unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius, July 15, 1859. According to your desire, most respected N N, to know the opinion of our Church about the Lutheran Church and others like it and its attitude towards them, I suggest you read some books and articles of special works that will clearly show you the difference between the teachings of our Orthodox Church and their newly introduced incorrect teaching. In order to have an idea of ​​​​the relationship of the Orthodox Church to other faiths, you must first of all carefully read: The Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogila, the lengthy Catechism of the Eminence Philaret, the patriarchal letters outlining the Orthodox confession of the Eastern Catholic Church. (St. Petersburg 1845), Truth of the Universal Church (St. Petersburg 1841 by A. N. Muravyova), works by Avdiy Vostokov on Latin errors (St. Petersburg 1857), District Epistle of the One St. the Conciliar and Apostolic Church to all Orthodox Christians (Christian Reading, 1849, p. 163.) and Mr. Muravyov’s word of Catholic Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism (Moscow, 1853). Lutherans are nothing more than schismatics of the Latin Church, although they separated from it, but they also contained some of its incorrect wisdom, for example, the procession of St. the Spirit and from the Son and the celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist on unleavened bread. They separated from the Latin Church due to many incorrect innovations in it, but did not find the truth, following their speculations for human reasons, they did not want to follow the established truth and join the Orthodox Church, based on the decrees of the Apostolic and Ecumenical Councils: they rejected the entire authority of the Orthodox Church of divinely inspired teachers and the decrees of ecumenical and local councils, they did not accept the traditions of St. Apostles, about whom St. The Apostle Paul, writing to Thessalonians, in his second letter, chapter 2. Art. 15, says: brethren, stand by the same and keep the traditions which you have learned either by word or by our message. They did not accept all the seven sacraments of the church that are necessary as conductors of God’s grace to man, but accepted only two sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist. But who performs them among them, not having the sacrament of the priesthood, which in the Orthodox Church was ordained by our Lord Jesus Christ, through the Apostolic ordination and their followers, the Orthodox hierarchs. And they do not have the sacrament of the priesthood; although they are called pastors, they do not have the grace of St. descending on them through ordination. Spirit, a are determined by decree of secular authority. About the Lutheran faith and disagreement with the Orthodox Church can be seen from the works of: Mr. Muravyov on the difference between their teachings and the truth of Orthodoxy (in the Addendum to the Works of the Fathers of 1852, p. 359), the St. Petersburg Theological Academy of Bachelor Evgraf Beniskriptov: on the sources of the Christian religion in comparison with the teachings Lutheran (St. Petersburg printed in 1845), and the confession of a former English Protestant (in the Spiritual Conversation of 1858, IV 42, p. 107). G. Burachek rightly notes that Lutherans have gold - the word of God, they have silver - people of natural good morals, but this gold and silver are diluted among them with such a terrible proportion of ligatures of human self-willed wisdom, so that for such abuse they will not avoid answering before God. They unjustly do not submit and resist the Church of Christ, contrary to the commandment of the Lord Himself: if the Church disobeys, be like a pagan and a tax collector (Matthew 18:17), and they do not listen to the teachings of the Holy One. The apostles and their successors, the shepherds and teachers of the Church, are contrary to the word of God spoken to them: listen to you, He listens to Me, and brush aside you, I am swept aside; Discard Me, the One who Sent Me will be rejected (Luke 10:16). Not following the teachings of the Orthodox Church, they divided into 70 too different-minded parties. The errors of Lutherans, and Protestants in general, are well exposed in the book: The Stone of Faith, by His Eminence Stephen Yavorsky. Delving into the discussion of the differences of religions, it is necessary to first strengthen ourselves with spiritual confidence in the correctness of the rulings of our Orthodox Church, by fulfilling the commandments of God and church decrees, and then the opposition of the light of our teaching against the dark error of the Gentiles will be revealed. There are also some works about the rightness of our Church: “The Head of the Church is the Lord, our Jesus Christ” is placed in the Christian reading of 1843, p. 454. “On the Orthodox Church of Christ”, specially printed (Moscow print. 1843) “about the Orthodoxy of the Russian Church” St. Petersburg. Theological Academy of student Ivan Yakhontov (St. Petersburg, printed in 1844). A critical review of the teaching of the Roman Church about the visible head of the Church, an essay by a student of the Kyiv spirits. Academy of Sylvester Gogotsky (Kyiv 1841 p. 199.). Abba Dorotheos said: “whoever does a deed pleasing to God will certainly be faced with temptation; for every good deed is either preceded or followed by temptation; and what is done for the sake of God cannot be firm unless it is tested by temptation.” You write that you just can’t understand this, why does it have to be like this? It would be enough, it seems, to believe in the great elder Abba Dorotheus, enlightened by God with his mind, and not try to comprehend with his mind, which does not yet have the gift of reasoning. This is what St. writes about this. Isaac the Syrian: “a soul that takes care of virtue and lives with danger (with caution and consideration) and the fear of God cannot be without sadness every day; without virtues, sorrows are intertwined with them. He who departs from sorrows in every way and from virtues is undoubtedly excommunicated. If you desire virtue, expose yourself to all sorrow: “for sorrows give birth to humility” (Sk. 34 p. 169). Below: “whoever finds his virtue without sorrow, the door of pride is opened to him........ In abundance (God) allows those tempted to be virtuous by such (sorrowful incidents), and a lot of evil from every place leaves to be aroused against him. It is not possible, when we always walk the path of righteousness, that we may not be left with lamentation and the body in ill health and sickness, and remain unchangeable, if we love to live in virtue” and further (Words 35, pp. 171, 172 and 173.). Why does God allow temptation and sorrow to befall those who love Him? (Word. 37 pp. 177–178.). When embarking on a good work for the love of God, prescribe for yourself the definition of death (Words 38, p. 184). Don’t be surprised when you begin virtue, and cruel and strong sorrows pour out on you from every place; virtue cannot be lower than that, and it does not consider the inconvenience of actions to its action, and further (Slov. 49 p. 248.). If the commandments of God are fulfilled in sorrow and distress; But we are despisers of this (sorrow): we despise Him Himself who commanded the commandments for the sake of the passions that are born from our peace, and we abolish the guilt of virtue, that is, oppression and sorrow (Words 77, p. 427). As soon as you begin to work for the Lord, prepare for temptation. Guide your heart, and endure whatever is done to you (Sir. 2:1), writes the wise Sirach. All who want to live godly will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12), says St. Apostle. From all this it is clear, and experience shows us, that virtues are opposed by malice (evil): and this happens by God’s permission, so that we do not become arrogant while doing good deeds: the fire of temptation burns these thorns and we involuntarily humble ourselves through temptation. After a general letter, I am writing to you N N. You write that Aunt N N suffered a painful and incurable wound. Providence itself shows you that now you cannot let her leave your home, and you must repay your debt to Christian love, serve her as physically as possible, and especially her soul, and try to convince her to accept our religion - the Orthodox faith. Although she believes in our sacraments, without joining our Church they have no effect on her, and how will she be remembered after death, when she had no communication with the Church in her life? Her outward going to church and saying prayers does not mean union with the Church, but when she is a communicant of the sacraments of the Orthodox Church, then she will have communion with her even after death. Her opinion is false, as if he would be a traitor who leaves the wrong faith and communicates with the Orthodox. If she were, that is. lived in the dominant Lutheran Church and did not hear convictions about the rightness of the Orthodox Church, then this could be more respectful, but when she lives in the dominant Orthodox Church, sees its solemn splendor, hears about dogmas and sacraments, and does not want to accept the truth, then what can be said in justification? Yes, in their Church there is no sacrament of the ordained priesthood, who will perform the sacrament? She is not anointed with myrrh and is deprived of other sacraments; and the sacraments are guides to the kingdom of heaven. And so that there is not a lot of gossip, what she is afraid of, this can be done in a secret way, only the priest and you will know, and after death it will be revealed: she will no longer care about who will interpret. This is the remedy I offer you, and God will bless you with success from it. The Holy Apostle writes: I planted, Apollos gave drink, and God increased (1 Cor. 3:6). Having surrendered to the will of God, act in simplicity of heart. With my father….. I wrote to you, most respected N. N., a few lines, but now I want to write to your letter dated the 21st of September, and everyone is torn off. Oh….. went yesterday; I don’t know whether he will arrive soon or whether this letter will arrive. When you are sick, you ask if you have sinned with double-mindedness? It was hard at the thought of being separated from him, and you don’t know whether to rejoice at his recovery, out of ignorance, what his lot in life will be? The future is unknown to us, therefore we must surrender everything to the will of God and pray about this: food be Thy will, Lord, for us and for our children.” Faith has the power to give you peace; Abraham also boasts for his faith; Because of so many promises about his seed, the Lord commands to sacrifice Isaac to Him, as it was to the father’s heart, and having only one son! But faith overcame love for his son through submission to the will of God, and everyone knows what the end will be. May the Lord allow us to find peace in faith and submission to the will of God. The word about love is great, has space and is difficult to say with our meager minds, and even more meagerly with our actions. Have you noticed that you have little love, but upon closer examination you find that you had no idea about love, and you want to know how to acquire at least some of this virtue? The Lord said: I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). This path is keeping the commandments of the Lord. Love Me, keep My commandments. And His commandments are all love and humility. We must fulfill them in any case, to the best of our ability, but not at all think that we have already fulfilled anything; Whatever good we do, we do everything not with our own strength, but with the help of God; for He said: without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5), and everyone should consider themselves inextricable servants according to the commandment of God: you must do what you have done, you must have done it (Luke 17:10). You want to see the acquisition of virtues, but this is impossible: it would only flatter our pride. Let us leave it to God to value our good actions, and we ourselves will ask God: “grant me to see my sins,” and not my virtues, even if there were any. You write about what happens when you see someone suffering and in need: and you don’t find the opportunity to give help, and then it becomes clear that you could have done something, but didn’t; - this is what serves you, to repentance and humility and henceforth to precaution, and also attracts God's help. You write about the sign of the cross, which is now not accepted in the world to be baptized. For example, when a train starts moving along the railway, you want to cross yourself, but you are afraid of ridicule, and you yourself decide this circumstance with the words of the Savior: and whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, He will be ashamed of him, and so on.... This would be enough for fearless action in religious rules; but there is also a lot of Christian teaching that is not imitation of the world and its customs: you cannot serve two masters, the world and God, and if anyone wants to be a friend of the world, he becomes an enemy of God. To the world, that is, to worldly customs that do not agree with religious ones, unfortunately and sorrow, today, as they say, “this is not accepted in the world.” What is this? The saving seal of the cross and the name of Christ, you see how the enemy achieves his all-destructive goal, imposing an opposing seal on the forehead and on the right hand. This is what St. writes about this. Ephraim of Syria: “And this evil one will put his seal, not on any member of the body, but so that this will not be difficult, he will put it on the right hand of a person; and he will also put an unholy mark on his forehead, so that a person will not be able to imprint on himself with his right hand the sign of Christ our Savior, and also will not be able to mark on his forehead, without a doubt, the terrible and holy name of the Lord and the glorious and terrible cross of the Savior. For this unfortunate one knows that the cross of the Lord, if imprinted on anyone, will destroy all his power. And therefore he will put a seal on a person’s right hand, since it seals all our members with a cross; and in a similar way, the forehead also bears the sign of the Savior on its top, just as a candlestick carries a lamp of light.” (In the works of the Holy Fathers of 1850, part 4 pp. 93.). How does the enemy put a seal on the forehead and on the right hand? Nothing less than gradually introducing his own tricks into the customs of the world, and even slyly hiding himself with his actions - he inspires people that there is no devil. There is one article in Home Conversation this year, in the thirties N N, it seems, entitled: “Too and therefore.” The matter begins about the torment of Jacob the Persian, and about the current state in the world of religious people, how the world looks at them and laughs at them. I cited Home Conversation not as a law, but as a look at the current world, how they look at those who want to observe the rules of religion, and what it is like for them to endure. Are you asking how to behave in this case? In my opinion, in agreement with St. Scripture, do not imitate this world, since you have lagged behind it in many ways, and do not be afraid of ridicule. Sometimes it happens to you, when starting a canon or an akathist, that you don’t have time to read from fatigue, or they tear it off and ask if, having noticed a verse, you can finish reading it later? You can do it this way, you can leave it, completing the shortcoming with humility, without embarrassment about what you didn’t do for some reason. It seems that I wrote to you so as not to be embarrassed for non-fulfillment, but to humble myself for the duty. Children can be reported after 6 weeks or less, especially if they have illnesses or illnesses. There remains one question about the forty-day prayer with numerical prayers and bows, after which you seem to receive what you asked for. I can’t say anything to this; for nowhere did it happen to read in the fatherly rules and instructions; But I don’t dare say anything affirmative on my own behalf. If those who told you this remedy have the testimony of St. Scriptures or instructions of St. fathers, then you can follow it, but without it it is not safe. The Lord commanded: ask and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7), but he did not say the number of prayers for each matter, how many to say, and gives us only what is useful to us, and what is not, he does not give. Read St. Isaac the Syrian, in the 3rd word, pp. 28 and 29, what we should ask for, and why God sometimes does not fulfill our request. There is also information about this on page 334. May the Lord give you true reason about everything. Take care of your aunt, pray to God, suggest to her about Orthodoxy, and that the Lord, loving us, punishes us, in order to get rid of eternal diseases with these diseases. In the nanny....., if anything had an effect, then this was the betrayal of the right hand of the Most High; But give not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name, glory. I ask N.N., God’s blessing to you and your children, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation and the prayer of God, the many-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. October 6, 1859. I complained to you, most honorable N.N., about N.N., for my title, but now who can complain about you for the same? I bring a complaint to you, try to improve. At the present time I cannot fully answer your letter of the 26th, but I will only say one thing, that you were offended for the wrong reprimand! We, as people who have not yet exterminated the passions of self-love and pride, then, in our opinion, an insult undeserved by us is difficult to endure. But if we take spiritual reason into our guidance, we will find that this incident was sent from God to test you and to correct your dispensation; for from such clashes we learn the effect of our passions, and with the help of God we try to heal them through self-reproach, humility and love; Read more clearly about this in the Delighted Classes, in the conversations of Rev. Zosima, on pp. 176 and 177, the beginning of the “verb paki”; you will see how useful such cases are for us; They are responsible for healing our mental illnesses. During the movement of passion, we cannot judge sensibly, but when it subsides, we will see our guilt in not bearing the insult. The Lord commanded to endure, but what to endure? not when we are guilty and are insulted for it; but when they are innocent and insult us; what is most holy The apostle made it clear. And no one can offend or annoy us, unless the Lord allows this to be for our benefit, or for punishment, or for testing and correction. And when we think about the commandment of God, about love that extends even to the love of enemies, then we will find ourselves unrequited in relation to cases like yours. I suggest reading part 1 of the Philokalia, Rev. Mark the Ascetic, in the chapters about those who think they will be justified by works, chapter 209, and St. Simeon the New Theologian, chapters. 31. They can serve you well. Having written to you about one subject in response to your letter, I’ll leave the rest until your next letter, but now I don’t have time to write. Asking for you, N. N., and for your children, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation and an unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. I am indebted to three of your letters, most respected N. N., dated October 26, November 5 and 9. Although I answered the first on the 31st, I did not answer all the questions. I'll start with that. The thought that confuses you is that you don’t need the guidance of an elder, but how others live - they don’t relate to anyone, except for confession once a year and they are calm, and so on. This thought is already exposed by the fact that it is from the enemy - when it brings confusion. If it is true, then why be embarrassed, but we must follow it; and the fact that those who are not related to anyone are calm, but you are not, can be resolved by this, that those who monitor their actions see their weaknesses, struggle, and not finding peace, seek a solution by faith from the experienced, or from the teachings of St. fathers, and therefore the enemy rises up against them with his machinations, causes confusion, bewilderment, and incites others against them; They, not finding consolation and reassurance, resort to whom they have a disposition by faith, ask for advice and calm down; But abuse again rises up, and again they resort to the same means: but against those who have no need to treat, but follow their own reason and think that they live well, carried away by vanity and self-conceit, the enemy does not rise up against them with a fight, but they pretend to be calm. There are many teachings of St. about the need to seek spiritual advice. fathers; although they especially relate to monks, spiritual warriors are not only monks, but also all Orthodox Christians. In St. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit appointed shepherds and teachers to shepherd the verbal flock of Christ; and to them it is said: insist, reprove, forbid, timely and untimely. The time will come when they will not listen to sound words, but will choose teachers for themselves with scratchy ears. “Nowadays it’s not an old time to listen to shepherds, we are smarter than them”; You will hear this from many people, there has been progress in this too! And that it is necessary to have advice, then Scripture also speaks about this: in much advice there is salvation; The lawless one is captivated by lack of advice. Our holy fathers and teachers themselves walked the path of spiritual life and left us an unforgettable path of revelation and advice. I will point out a few: St. John Climacus, Art. 1 and 4, St. Abba Dorotheos - a teaching about not following your own reason, Simeon the new Theologian in many of his chapters and in the 7th word (twelve words), Theodore of Edessa from chapter 40 onwards. In these chapters there is how demons hate those who follow the path of revelation and advice, and how they devise intrigues against this; St. Cassian in his speech to Leontin the abbot, and in many others one can see what benefit there is from advice. But enough about this. You will also find at St. Barsanuphius, that the worldly people also sought advice. That R.'s mother... . . attributed praise to you - this was due to her disposition and simplicity, but of course she should not have praised to your face; and your dispensation seemed to be in this, that you cannot wear honor, as St. writes. Isaac in the 1st word; saw harm - accept it! When you don’t have much time for prayer, be content with what you have, and God will accept your will; remember that the tax collector’s feeling is pleasing to God in prayer and be careful not to give value to your prayer: this is God’s work, not ours. One should not believe dreams and be embarrassed by them; the enemy makes many intrigues just to cause confusion. If something happens to us, it is not from dreams, but that it must be so according to the destinies of God unknown to us. May the Lord keep N N, you and your children in mental and physical health. N N does not take care of himself, but he sometimes needs to take rest to restore his overworked strength, mental and physical. In the second letter you write about M.R., but she is now with us and delivered us from N N a bas-relief of the Last Supper for our meal. God bless you! The suggestions of people advising you to get acquainted with ..., supposedly for the benefit of many, are incompatible with your situation both in family terms and in the fact that N N. has care about this, who needs to be helped; How can you interfere in something that’s not your own business, and without N. N.’s knowledge, and of course he won’t approve of this. Why should you waste time getting to know this? Let us suppose that it is possible to have edification from them; but this requires a lot of time and rapprochement, and you don’t have enough of it. Let free ladies do good, but let them not preach on the rooftops. But their goodness seems to them this way, and maybe the opposite will come out, due to their ignorance of the essence of the matter: they will be convinced one way, but in reality it’s different, and besides, N N. it’s unpleasant for you to get involved in matters of this kind, what’s the point of it for you? – You ask about confession, should a previously confessed sin be spoken about in confession if the confessor asks about it? When after confession there was no sin of the same kind, then there is no need to repeat it, but when asked, say: there was no sin after confession, and if it is the same confessor, then he already knows your entire confession. In public prayer there is no need to differ from others by bowing or praying on your knees, but when bows are prescribed according to the rules, they must be done at a decent time. There is no need to express inner feelings in front of everyone; and if a feeling of tenderness comes, then you need to have it secretly: God looks at the heart. When we pray especially, we can only express it outwardly humbly. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. When you are somewhere, you yourself recognize your disorder and see your weakness; but you shouldn’t be embarrassed about it; during times of unsettled spirit, it would be better to remain silent, but, according to the custom accepted in the world, this will seem strange, and it is impossible to completely withdraw from society; then there is nothing left to do, if you get carried away into some kind of judgmental or unhelpful conversation, you need to repent. Whatever you say in your hearts, be moved on your beds (Ps. 4:5), says St. King and Prophet David. You grieve over your embarrassment every week through conversations and judgments that happen in society about monasticism, that you interfere in them and sometimes share the opinions of others. What to do? It is not the monastic title that is to blame, but the weaknesses of some people, which the world vigilantly sees; and, seeing several people of weakness, puts a stain on all monasticism. One cannot help but feel sorry for those people, the temptation comes from them, but God is so merciful that He is able to bring the weak to repentance. However, we do not dare to boast about ourselves that through our life we ​​reach the heights of our dispensation, but rather we see weaknesses in ourselves and must have ourselves under all creation, i.e. worst of all. Although the ancient fathers were of a great dispensation and holy, they all considered themselves worse than everyone else. However, the world sees disorder in the monks, but does not notice its own; If they felt their sins, they would not have time to judge others. Don’t be embarrassed about this, but when you come home, bring repentance, without judging others who are carried away to court. Invoking God's blessing on all of you, I remain the wisher for your health and salvation, and the prayer of God, the many-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. November 14, 1859. Your children made a collection for our monastery, which I received from M.R..... God save them, and enlighten their pure hearts with the knowledge of truth and piety! In response to your two letters, most respected N. N., I write these lines: I thank you for the information about the health of N. N., yours and your children: may the Lord bless the diligence of your children, Who accepted two mites from a poor widow, more than many rich offerings; Thus he will accept their childish zealous offering and reward them with spiritual gifts, enlightening their minds to the knowledge of the truth. Precisely, in modern times it is difficult to preserve youth from the stormy stream of free-thinking that has spread across the face of the earth and drowns the human mind, darkened by unbelief, in muddy waters. But with God’s help, plant the seeds of the Orthodox faith in their hearts; water them with the fear of God, which leads to love through the fulfillment of the commandments of the Lord. The seeds of piety that have sunk in the young soil of their hearts will perhaps, over time, bear fruit in the shrine with the firmness of the Orthodox faith. Try not to allow them to read books that are contrary to the truth; the young mind is capable of receiving all kinds of impressions. And most importantly, pray to the Lord: may He protect them from the arrows and temptations of the enemy and entrust them to the protection of the Mother of God. Invoking God’s blessing on all of you and on your children, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation and the unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. December 5th, 1859. Due to the weather I feel weak and wrote poorly; I beg your pardon. I don’t know why I received your letter, most respected N N, written on December 19th on the 27th; whereas N.N.’s letter, dated the 20th, I received on December 24th; Maybe they sent it later, but it didn’t have time to go with him. But still I received it: thank you for Merya’s congratulations on the holiday. I am very glad that the things I sent to you reached you intact, and you accepted them with love. It is a pity that your efforts and yours in general to join the sick N. N. to our Church were not crowned with good success: what is not in our power, we will leave to the will of God. You, describing your thoughts and feelings when dealing with her, wrote them to me with difficulty; and then she slandered me, as if I should feel disgust towards you for all this. When the Lord did not turn away sinners, but ate and drank with publicans and sinners, and talked with them, then who am I that I dare turn away anyone? This is your sin or a vice of another kind - self-love: you don’t want to appear before me exposing your weakness. Is it really possible to describe only your corrections, and for me to praise you for this? No, it’s even useful to catch yourself in such and similar thoughts and feelings; and if in the struggle we see ourselves defeated, then we must recognize our weakness, and not be embarrassed that I have such shortcomings, but humbly submit ourselves before God; God looks upon the humble and helps them: that is why the Lord allows us to fall into any weaknesses, so that, seeing our defilement, we would be humble and have a contrite and humble heart. I don’t think that I turn away from those who are in struggle, recognize themselves as weak and repent. You need to have even more compassion for them: they don’t require a doctor’s health, but those who are sick do. To the question about bows, I will say: God does not demand from us more than our strength, and that after bringing you to exhaustion, you can calmly reduce it by considering your strength, or by replacing large bows with small (waist) bows, and by placing three large bows immediately; a can also be divided into three parts during the day. About the rosary: ​​although they primarily belong to monks, it does not prevent lay people from praying with them, just not openly worn like monks, but in prayer at home, or on the road; for the rosary is called a spiritual sword, reminding us of prayer and expressing the number of prayers or bows due to us. In.... inclinations towards envy against sisters and resentment towards them, and about one’s own things, excessive care must be cut off while they are still young and not rooted in admonition or light punishment, deprivation of something, etc. A young tree, crooked or gnarled, is pruned and tied by a skilled gardener; it happens afterwards beautifully and fruitfully. This example applies to you too, with God’s help. If you find it necessary to take an Orthodox, pious girl to look after the children, then why not - by common agreement you can take her. How can you manage the children alone? God help her to fulfill her duty for the benefit of your children. About commemoration - you know what you should do, do it. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. Happy new year to you. December 29, 1859. I grieve that I cannot fully write to your letters, most respected N N. It’s hard to believe that I have almost no time to write at all; I receive all sorts of mail from 20 to 30 letters, I need to read it; and here is weakness, people, brethren; I'm no good at night. I received your letter on the 20th of January; you describe the cases that preceded joining the Orthodox Church..... and what obstacles and doubts there were, but all this was eliminated by the grace of God, and was subsequently crowned with good success and joy. It is advisable that .... follow the example of her sister, then she too would find spiritual joy. I agree that it is very difficult and tiring for you to watch both the sick and look after the children; you are not looking for a reward and do not think of being worthy of it; but God looks at your will and labors, and invisibly rewards and prepares more for it; but it is not useful for us if we see our labors and expect reward for them. You grieve that your feelings for your family are not what you wanted to have, and you have learned that the way you act is unpleasant to them, and that, while they regret you, they do not participate in your affairs. According to your conscience, you do not give them temptation to do what they condemn you for, then be calm, praying to the Lord for them. We cannot convince everyone of the correctness of our actions: everyone has their own view of things, we must submit matters to the judgment of the Lord. He knows all our thoughts and rewards everyone according to his deeds. If necessary, in case of incorrect judgments about objects of faith, you can say what you have read or heard; but do not enter into an argument, but leave everyone to their own thoughts; and maybe the Lord will enlighten their hearts to the knowledge of the truth. They, having not heard from anyone, think that they are judging, and when there is a good heart, then the seed that falls on it can bear fruit; Just speak with humility, and not in the tone of a teacher. I am not offended by the length of your letter, but it pains me that I cannot answer in detail: at almost every line they stop and interrupt. Asking for God's blessing on you and your children, I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner Hieromonk Macarius. January 26, 1860 I am guilty, I insulted you with my unreasonable letter, most respected N N. At that time, it was as if I was inundated with letters from all sides, and I grieved that I was not able to satisfy everyone with my stupid answers, and I especially felt some kind of weakness. But in no way do I forbid you to write in your spiritual needs, and pray to the Lord that He will grant me the understanding to give you words of consolation, like the teaching of St. he commands us from the fathers; For better convenience, answer what subject you need, underline the lines. You write about receiving my letter and prosphora from the nun, the collector-mother..... God bless you for welcoming them into your home and for your encouragement. This is a very difficult obedience - collection; and especially for those who have never seen almost any people in such a noisy city. This is what obedience means, self-denial, and that the collection is meager, she should not grieve about this: what God sends, she must be satisfied with. Tell them both that I wish them to be in good spirits and send my unworthy blessing, I have no doubt in your obedience: you say that you receive relief through my stupid letters, and through your own information about yourself; write whatever you want, just emphasize special matters that require an answer, as I said above. You speak of difficulties in the mortal situation; when my aunt, having been guided by all the sacraments, was dying with difficulty, then what can we say about the others? This is incomprehensible to us; but we can understand from the writings of the fathers that dying labors and illnesses serve to cleanse the sins committed in life, and are assisted by St. sacraments. But one cannot conclude this about everyone in general, for it is said: the death of sinners is cruel (Ps. 33:22), but one should not despair, but try to reconcile one’s conscience with repentance and humility, and hope in the ineffable mercy of God. We still have to hope for joining... our Church; Maybe suddenly a ray of true light will shine in her, and she will recognize the need to join. St. Apostle Paul went to Damascus to torture Christians, but on the way he himself received the enlightenment of the truth through the appearance of God. There are many similar cases in the history of the Church. By uniting faith with your aunt... your feelings, N N., have become even closer to her and prayerful sympathy gives you consolation: this is a sign of the rightness of our faith, God informs you of this. May the Lord fulfill the desire of the deceased - to save her sister. Asking for God's blessing for your entire family, I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. Reliquary for the relics of St. martyrs received. God bless you, through their prayers the Lord will send you His mercy. February 9, 1860. Last post I only managed to write a few lines to you, dear N.N.? but even now I don’t know - I can answer everything accurately; the weather is inclement, blizzard, snow and wind of the present time have an impact on my mortal composition, and my spirit weakens. But I hope that even if I don’t have time to write, you won’t think that I’m burdened with writing. Are you asking about your responsibilities towards your perceived adult godchildren, and whether to accept them in advance? The duty is that they be firm in the Orthodox confession and not deviate from it, as was the case in former times, that they did not baptize without guarantors. When receiving infants, the recipients give denials and vows for them, because they themselves cannot, and after that they must be taught the sacraments of faith and commandments, and adults themselves make denials and vows. You cannot continue to refuse to perceive them if there are no others who are trustworthy. That’s what I mean, but maybe there are rules for this, and others know better. Regarding the use of money, one must have a prudent consideration, taking into account the capital and the needs of the family and household expenses, feeling the heartfelt feeling whether there is stinginess; but even if you give without calculation: give it only once, you also need to do it after. This will already be a vain donation, but you need to look at: need, face, necessity and your opportunity. Be wise as a serpent and your goals as doves (Matthew 10:16). N N can also agree with this. A difficult question about children: when they are with family and peers, should they be allowed to play cards and dance? I don’t know how to solve this. What has become the custom of secular addresses is difficult to resist when communicating with the world. Simply, you need to be a confessor, enduring reproaches, ridicule and contempt. And if you allow cards from a young age, this can eventually turn into a habit and even a passion: also dancing, which one wise preacher called “Herodia’s art,” and which the world considers an innocent pleasure in society, but in essence they are sinful. How much you can convince children that both are harmful for them, but they, looking at other children practicing these amusements, will either envy them or condemn them, and consider themselves better than them. And here it is appropriate to have wisdom, but not with your own mind, but to pray to the Lord to make you wise in how to act in raising your children, and to save them from the corrupting spirit of harmful worldly customs. I can’t say anything more to this question. Regarding predestination, church teachers clearly indicate that predestination occurs according to the foreknowledge of God, and is not simply predetermined to a person, God sees our deeds, and those not yet done, and according to them predetermines punishment or reward. But man’s autocracy is not constrained by this. Why should we enter into the affairs of God? They are incomprehensible to us. I advise you to read the sermons of Elijah Minyaty, a bishop, in the 1st week of Lent about predestination. Even in the interpretation of the Sunday Gospels of the Right Reverend Nikephoros of Astrakhan on the Week of the Samaritan, a conversation on the Gospel about predestination. The subject is explained quite clearly there. Asking for God's blessing on all of you, I remain a wisher for your health and salvation, and a pilgrim, the many-sinned Hieromonk Macarius. Children are my unworthy blessing. March 5th. The false concept and judgment about nunneries, which you yourself had, is worldly wisdom. They do not understand that there is a calling from God to this life, without which man himself cannot leave the world with its attractive and seductive pleasures, which are often dissolved by sorrows and illnesses. Having entered the monastery, we have one desire - the salvation of the soul, but we need various kinds of tests, temptations and sorrows, so that through them we can recognize the spiritual ailments hidden in us, infirmities and various passions, and through sorrows and temptations receive spiritual healing, and not as you picture in your imagination: “a quiet monastery - prayer, calm execution of orders”, this is a mechanical life. And what kind of battles and temptations await those who have entered the field of this spiritual feat, you have no idea about this. If you read carefully the first four words, or degrees of St. John Climacus, you will understand theoretically, but it is still far from experience. You don’t need to experience in detail the entire way of monastic life, but I will say that the very things that are considered gossip serve as a benefit for spiritual workers. These gossip concerns them, of course they will be offended, but in this way they will recognize their weakness and take care of their healing: with patience, self-reproach and humility. And if they had not received these reproaches, they would have lost their benefit. Not all are of the same mind and dispensation: others gain wisdom from spiritual warfare in a different way and achieve humility, some through simplicity and humility. And if you go through one mechanical life without any temptation, then you can fall into pride and delusion. But this life does not belong to you, follow the path on which the Lord set you, be a humble Christian, a wife who loves her husband and a mother who cares for her children: this is your duty. Pray to God to grant you help both in these and in all your affairs, but it is impossible to avoid temptations of this kind in the living world to the knowledge of your weaknesses and to humility. By practicing virtue, one cannot avoid sorrows. Read St. Isaac the Syrian 34, 35, 36 and 37 words; you will find a lot of benefit in them. You are looking for warm prayer, but this cannot be approved. If you happened to pray with the warmth of your heart, then you already think that this is your salvation, and this can lead to deception: that is why the Lord does not allow you to rely on it, but allows you to be confused by thoughts and overcome by sleep. The purity of prayer, its warmth, tears, etc., all this is a gift from God; but it is given to the humble; for they can no longer rise in mind, but only see their own badness, and, like a publican, cry out to God for mercy. And leave the gift to the discretion of God: He knows to whom and when to give it. St. Isaac writes in the 34th word on page 168: “gift without temptation, that is, destruction to those who have accepted” and further others. Humble prayer is acceptable before God; but the one to which we ourselves give a price, we also value our zeal, and through this we ascend in mind, is not pleasing to God. Let us leave it to God to give our prayers a price, and we must consider all ours as nothing; but not to give up prayer, even if it seems cold to us; we do not know the Providence of God, why He takes away from us the feeling of warmth, but allows dryness, despondency, laziness, etc., all this for our prosperity 37 . If you ever happen to enjoy the warmth of prayer even after being taken away, you should not be discouraged, but humble yourself. Read in the 4th part of the Philokalia, by St. John of Carpathia, ch. 70–71. At the beginning of the calling to spiritual life, the Lord visits with His grace and various consolations, but afterward takes them away and plunges us into the fire of various temptations and sorrows, so that our self-loving and glory-loving dispensation is completely incinerated by the fire of temptation and we would have no hope in ourselves and in our own deeds, but in the mercy and love of God. Humility is a great blessing! It’s a good thing to take care of... so that he doesn’t deviate into city pranks, what occupation to give him, I don’t know his abilities; knitting stockings seems to be a handicraft that is convenient for him when he is in the room; However, maybe you will find another convenient activity for him. Between tasks, you can also read books: the Catechism, Sacred History and the spiritual alphabet according to his concept. God bless you for Your care for the collectors of S-, You give them great joy in the labors of their feat. Give them my unworthy blessing. I wish peace, health and salvation to all of you, and asking God’s blessing for you, I remain an unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. Don’t be angry that I write poorly: the pen is not for me and I see poorly. You write about your sorrows, which often visit you, and even more so after coming from us, where you were spiritually consoled and strengthened by the grace of God. It is right that your acquaintance told you that after joy you must expect sorrow: so is St. the fathers teach us that it is impossible and unprofitable to remain like this. St. Isaac writes: after joy, bring sorrow, and when you find peace unchanged, then fear. Read word 78; you will see how much we need temptations. You cannot put a price on your residence; but you, at least, try as much as possible to live according to piety, and equally N N. The Apostle says: all who want to live godly will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12), also St. Isaac in 35 words. writes: “but from this it is also known that God provides (for man) when sorrow comes upon him.” It's a pity that………. she left without joining the Orthodox Church and did not follow the example of her sister.... But you fulfilled your duty, served the sick woman and desired to join her: God will accept your zeal, and may He arrange for her according to His Holy. will; It’s just a pity that she lost the church’s remembrance and prayers for her. God grant that in another...... the light of true knowledge of St. faith of the Orthodox Church and added it to it. Your grief over the fact that you could not pray fervently and fervently is wrong; as I saw in my letter written on the 10th. Can a humble person ever think that he is praying well? He always sees his own weakness and does not dream of the height of prayer, but cries out like a publican, and God accepts the prayers of the humble and gives them a price, not we ourselves. In unforeseen cases, not having time to ask who you are informing what to do, you must run to the Lord with prayer up to three times, as St. Barsanufius. Today Fr. passed away with us. Niphon, hieromonk, with a peaceful and quiet death, at the third hour after midnight, received the parting words of St. secrets in a few hours, I became quite ill with consumption. At the same post office we send your passport..... in another envelope addressed to your name; read the letter. Glory to God that what was written in my letter brought you benefit, but attribute this not to me, but to Him who is able to open the mouths of the dumb, and thank Him, asking for help to understand many things that we still misunderstand. You are embarrassed, seeing in yourself a complete failure to fulfill all the commandments, and you are afraid that your whole life will pass only in intention, what will be the end? Read St. Isaac the Syrian in the 34th word on 108 pages. “The reward is not for doing the commandments, but for humility, and when the (doing) power of the former becomes impoverished, then humility, in their place, is pleasant.” And I also offer what is written out from the book of Peter of Damascus, so as not to despair, but to repent and humble yourself. However, this should not be a reason for us to be careless and weakened, but to not be embarrassed, but to humble ourselves: when correcting something, not to rise up, and when there are shortcomings, not to lose heart, but to observe the middle, and when God sees in us the guarantee of humility, he will help us in doing good deeds, but while this is not there, then through our very efforts and weaknesses we acquire humility and involuntarily see our own thinness and poverty. But we also need to know that we are spiritual warriors and are always in a struggle with invisible enemies, when we are fighting with various passions, when they are not overcome by the action of these, they are led into arrogance and opinion of ourselves; and therefore it is necessary to have a weapon against them - humility. However, there are also significant changes in our dispensation, it seems that I wrote to you to read chapter 43 of Callistus and Ignatius, in the 2nd part of the Philokalia; it is clearly expressed there. God grant that the girl will be useful to your children and will facilitate your work in this matter, and even more so after so many labors and feats that you have endured with the sick. Thank God that He helped you look after the little orphan, He Himself is the guardian of orphans. After writing these lines, I also received your letter dated March 24th and I’m in a hurry to respond to the same mail, and I’m already writing somehow: I’m in a hurry, there are a lot of letters, but time is short and I’m weak, this week is a special service, and I finish on the evening of the 28th, and tomorrow it’s early to go to the post office, the water is spilling. I will answer your questions briefly: My letters, or some of them, to matter, in case of need similar to the one you are writing about, can be shown; But I asked you not to show them to everyone who is curious: not everyone is imbued with the same mind. I have never seen anything in Scripture about vows that should be given with blessing: I know that they are given simply; but there are foolish vows that are difficult to fulfill. In this regard, it is necessary to leave it to the spiritual father to decide; he can change it to something else that is convenient to do. 3 But I can’t give advice about life insurance, that is, providing a pension for the family: I haven’t read about it anywhere in the holy books. This is not a matter of my mind, but only here the lack of faith in God’s providence and our mentality to artificially provide for ourselves or our family is manifested. I cannot prohibit, but I cannot give advice, or even blessings. We have the best means of security - the commandment of God: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). Asking for God's blessing on you and your entire family, I remain an unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. March 28th, 1860. I sincerely thank you for your attention to the nuns of Sevsky and for your consolation. In the first letter you express your indignation at the one who wrote instructive letters to us. What to do, now it has become an enlightened and intelligent age, civilization and progress have raised the minds of people to the highest degree. But why should we be surprised that we who are of little importance are rebelling against us, they even dare to attack the pastors of the Church in print: read in Home Conversation 10 and 11 N N; you will see what audacity Mr. Shulgin allowed himself to write against the speech of His Eminence Anthony of Smolensk, and on the contrary, Pevnitsky and Pashchenko wrote in defense of the truth. It is incongruous to allow an obvious attack on the Church - in the person of its shepherds. I thank you all for congratulating me on the bright holiday of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, glory to God, we celebrated it peacefully and calmly, and now we are finishing the bright week, until next year God will bless whom to wait for this celebration here in the militant Church, and maybe many will move to the triumphant Church, this is hidden from us, but God knows everything. During Great Week you prepared for the communion of the most pure mysteries of Christ, and I believe that you were worthy of receiving them with your family, on the day of remembrance of the Last Supper on Great Thursday, and I earnestly congratulate you all on this gift. But I notice that during the preparation for the sacrament, that is, during the fast, you were in confusion because you had prepared poorly, prayed little, fasted absent-mindedly, and do you dare, having prepared so poorly, to begin the terrible sacrament? You have not offered a single fervent prayer, not a single good deed, and your repentance is so cold and careless, and so on. You don’t see that this confusion comes from the opposite, and you can never be at peace with it. Did you think that once you were well prepared, you could start with dignity? But this is wrong: no matter how much we prepare, we still cannot begin with dignity. Only the consciousness of our unworthiness, a contrite and humbly heart, is accepted by God, and out of His ineffable goodness and mercy He is worthy of this great sacrament. I am sure that you truly wanted to prepare yourself for it, but then arrogance intervened; and not seeing herself able to do this or that, she did not humble herself in her weakness; then the enemy attacked you with confusion, but in this there is no repentance, no humility, no calmness. When we read not only with our lips, but in the feeling of our hearts: I know my iniquity and will take away my sin before me, then the fruit of this will be: a contrite and humble heart, which God will not despise. But if you didn’t feel this in yourself, but on the contrary, dryness and coldness, then there is no need to be embarrassed, but to humble yourself, which you should involuntarily feel; and when we are embarrassed, we do not receive any benefit; and you fell behind the Jesus Prayer, which you used to say when talking with others. It is obvious that without you noticing how you dreamed about this, then, for your benefit, your weakness was shown to you, so that you humble yourself. Whoever uses this spiritual sword must be humble, for then only with it I defeat all enemies, but without this many fall into incurable delusion. I advise you not to stretch to such a height. But in freedom, in passionate movements, in weakness, call on God with this prayer with humility. I will send you an extract: a warning to those who undergo this prayer. Asking for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, I remain the unworthy pilgrim, the sinful Hieromonk Macarius. April 9th. Most Venerable in the Lord N N Since I am in an unpaid debt with written answers, I also owe you these and I don’t know how I can repay: my strength is exhausted, and my letters are multiplying, and I have little time to work with people. I received your letter dated April 19th on the 26th and I still can’t get around to writing an answer. I wrote two letters to you for two days, they are constantly torn off and the matter is interrupted. I am sending another letter addressed to you. In your perplexities and sorrows, you seek peace from me, but what am I? The merciful Lord is able to give you a sound mind and peace. Our life is associated with various sorrowful incidents, through which we learn patience, and, realizing our weakness, humility; But without this, sometimes we think to go right, we get carried away into arrogance and pride, we become strict judges of others, and we forget our sins. You are, as it were, between two such reasons that you need to please one and not upset the other, but you could not succeed in this, despite all your good intentions and efforts. Describe the mistakes you have made; where do they come from? Out of the desire to do better, and vanity and subtle conceit may have been grafted into this, and therefore it could not be durable. And the temptation of freedom certainly had to be presented. Seeing a loved one... in need and not giving money, where is the love? and what kind of disposition could he have towards you? By giving money, you break the commandment….. and that’s bad. But when two commandments are to be fulfilled, and one of them must be broken, then St. The fathers give advice to transgress the lesser and fulfill the greater. There is a commandment to honor parents, a commandment about the mystery of marriage: that a man should leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife, and the two become one flesh (Eph. 5:31). And when they are united through the flesh, can the external belongings be separated? And in order not to embarrass the mother, it is necessary not to bring this to her attention. It also bothers you that, having previously been frank, now you have to hide it; why is this? Out of necessity and for the sake of common peace. You see your own mistake, that by revealing too much to both sides, there has been some kind of cooling between them. What has been done cannot be returned, but one must reproach oneself, repent before God and calm oneself in humility, and drive away embarrassment and not submit to it. Another circumstance that upsets you is that sometimes, when you see in N N some kind of grief that comes from suspicion, which in your opinion is wrong, and you, trying to convince him of the opposite, thereby make him a nuisance, which you do not want at all. And in such cases, with a good disposition, calling on God’s help, you can tell him the truth, not for teaching, but to alleviate his difficult situation, however, not urgently, but humbly with love. During the embarrassment, he may not accept your words, but later they will be beneficial, and if you know for sure that his suspicion is wrong and you agree with him, then you will cause him greater harm. Self-reproach calms us, but blaming others deprives us of peace: even if they were definitely guilty. But they are the weapons of God’s Providence, with which He acts in matters of our salvation, and without God’s permission they cannot do anything to us. I don’t think that I have any unfavorable opinion about N N. We are all people, we are in a feat and struggle in spiritual warfare; we fall and rise, we accept wounds and heal them with repentance and humility. Who will say about himself: I am not like other men, or like this publican? (Luke 18:11). To the question about common prayer with N N - do not leave, but pray with him when he calls and even when he does not call. Try to collect the scattered thoughts, but do not think that you prayed without being distracted, that’s why things go well, but after scattered prayer they go topsy-turvy. For being distracted, reproach yourself and humble yourself. God accepts the prayer of the humble, but the opinion that one prayed undistractedly is not approved. When you pray together, peace will remain between you; the cunning enemy, perhaps, induces absent-mindedness in order to avoid overeating, and also the embarrassment that happens between you due to the instigation of the enemy occurs: self-reproach and humility are strong weapons against him. In all these cases, that is, that in conversations with some people about spiritual subjects, receiving benefit from them, you cannot speak freely in front of your husband, and the fact that at the sight of a certain person or the memory of him, you become confused, and the fact that you think others will notice this, adds more, although you have no influence on him, in all, I repeat, these cases, recognize the intrigue of the enemy, who wants to disturb you and deprive you of peace, and all this temptation and abuse, do not pay attention to it and do not be embarrassed. But when you do not have the strength to resist, then you must assume that you had a secret opinion about your pious marital life, which you could not even notice. In everything one must have humility, even if they did everything commanded, everyone should consider themselves to be inexorable servants, according to the word of the Lord. There is no need to notice how your confessor looks at you; he is only a minister of the sacrament, and the performer is the Lord Himself. After all, this is the enemy’s plot to cause outrage on such an important occasion. As much as I could, with God’s help, I wrote to answer your questions, and may He Himself act according to your faith and will, and give peace to your conscience, and may henceforth help you in all your deeds to fulfill His holy will with humility. Asking for the peace and blessing of God for your children and your spouse and for you, I remain an unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful Hieromonk Macarius. My hand is confused, I write poorly - don’t blame me. Most Honorable of the Lord N N 38 From July 17th, with your writing, you inform me of your safe return to your family and of their joyful reception. May the most merciful Lord always and at all times give you peace with yourself and your neighbors: and with this peace bring prayers to the Lord God, and prostrate yourself to do the rest of God’s commandments. Your fear, so as not to fall into the enemy’s snares, is thorough, but you should not be very embarrassed, but put your trust in God’s all-powerful help, and call on it, try in all your affairs, have humility; in good ones, attribute not to yourself, but to God’s help, and in random attempts, even to the point of an idle word, do not despair, but descend into the depths of humility and repent. Humility crushes all the networks of the enemy. It is impossible for you not to have any struggles, for our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), but the Lord will accept your good will to resist and will not allow you to be tempted beyond measure. Regarding the use of wine, I advised you to benefit, without binding your autocracy. You, having seen the benefit of this, can prudently avoid it, under the pretext of some kind of illness (mentally imagining a mental illness), but in case of great need you can take up to half a glass. I see what happened to you from this embarrassment, and I do not approve of this, but I advise you to calm down more by placing yourself and your infirmities on the mercy of God. There is no benefit in confusion, but the greatest harm; it is the enemy’s chariot; it does not allow one to pour out one’s heart before God in repentance. I entrust you to the protection of God, may He instruct, enlighten and strengthen you to walk the path of His Holy Commandments in humility: and may He protect you from all the snares and snares of the enemy, and may all your sins be forgiven; and I, unworthy, send my forgiveness and blessing and remain your zealous pilgrim, I. L. and with my well-disposed brethren we humbly bow... and may the Lord arrange your path to good success. July 27, 1835. Wholesale Skit. I rejoice greatly at your safe journey and return to home, and congratulate you on being worthy to worship the saint of God, St. Mitrofan and Tikhon, it’s amazing how the vanity of this world has still distracted you from this; but, thanks be to the Lord, He helped you to break all the bonds that prevented you from this enterprise. Beware of being so presumptuous in thinking that passion for…. it has completely gone out in you, although you attribute it to my imaginary prayers, and not to yourself: but everything is dangerous, so that the machinations of the enemy do not build you another most dangerous ditch of arrogance; it can only be strong when we, seeing our poverty, recognize our weakness and humble ourselves, not relying on our deeds and labors. Not only in this case, but in other cases as well, the same rule should be followed. Bows are left not only on the twelve holidays, but on Saturdays and Sundays. And also on the feasts of St. John the Baptist two, St. Apostles Peter and Paul and the Mother of God, that is: the Kazan Mother of God, the Sign and the Intercession; St. John the Theologian and three saints on January 30: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom. But although glory be to the most merciful Lord, who strengthens you, and what about your household. . . . your thoughts do not attract you, but even with all this, we must moreover be relentlessly vigilant and preserve our feelings, and ask the Lord to invisibly, with His omnipotent help, save us from the deepest ditch! I have written little for your love; I only hasten to find you in O-e, and I entrust you to the protection of the Almighty Lord; May he enlighten you, and strengthen you for good edification, and may he help you in everything, and may he protect you, and may he protect you from all the snares and snares of the devil, and may he forgive you all your sins, voluntary and involuntary..., and I, a great sinner, send you fatherly forgiveness and blessing; your unworthy spiritual father I. L - and with the well-disposed brethren we bow. September 22, 1835. The Lord lives and we hope that He will not allow attempts beyond our strength, may the all-merciful and generously gifted Lord protect and cover us, to whose protection I entrust your existence and continuation of life and, although unworthy, I dare to beg His almighty goodness, may He strengthen and rise from the ditch of mud; and may he set on stone the doing of the holy and life-giving commandments, and may he forgive you all your sins, and I, the indecent one, send my fatherly forgiveness and blessing: your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I. L–. The feeble-minded one wrote this for your love, for the relief of your conscience, and I am sure that you firmly remember that complete relief and protection of the soul occurs after a perfect confession before the spiritual father and after reading the prayer of permission. November 25, 1835. Your Scripture, published on the 9th of March, proves to us your zeal for us; and at the same time it reminds us of our thinness and insignificance; we see ourselves as truly deprived of those properties that you attribute to us. But, knowing that you say this out of pure zeal and humility, we wish that the Lord will reward you according to your heart. For, “he receives the righteous, in the name of the righteous, he accepts the bribe of the righteous”…. So you too, although you accept us as sinners, according to your faith, you will not lose the benefit that God Himself has given you; and the same goes for the bribes of the righteous. In considering the current situation about me L..., your right mind is infallible. Truly the Lord creates everything for our benefit, and without Him even the power of our head will not perish. As for those who are zealous for my badness and, according to their faith, who take advantage of them, the Lord is not lacking even now to grant to everyone worthy and seeking consolation, both through shepherds appointed by the Holy Spirit, and especially through His hidden servants. Only so that those seeking benefit and consolation in their sorrows and perplexities should be prepared by faith and disposition to fulfill the commandments of the Lord and church decrees: and humbly seek and accept advice in simplicity of heart. For my part, I thank the Lord, I feel calm in my conscience, and I am not burdened by my transition 39; However, when anyone wants to have an interview with me, I have the freedom to do so, without any prohibition. And I, the most sinful Macarius, being in your house, was much pleased with the zealous hospitality of your father and your entire family, without any merit of mine; Only I was extremely sorry that I didn’t find you in the house. March 26th, 1836. Seeing from your letter of April 18 how your spirit suffers, wounded by the arrows of the insidious flesh that has seduced you with the desire of passion, we heartily sympathize with you and have compassion for you, like the weak fate of our body. You are looking for peace and tranquility of soul, but your conscience reproaches you for breaking God’s commandments. It is undeniable that sin is the greatest evil with which we anger God, our Creator. But how great is His mercy for sinners, no one is able to explain this! He sent His only begotten Son, calling not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And he waits for the sinner when he comes to Him from error, and does not strike him in the moments of his ecstatic madness and error! He calls him both with His word and with the inner voice of conscience: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28), and conscience reproaches the crime. When will a sinner, like the prodigal son, say within himself: Why am I perishing with famine? I will go to my Father and say to Him: Father, I have sinned in heaven and before You, and Your son is no longer worthy to be called (Luke. 15:21), then the most merciful Father will extend His arms to him and accept him with joy. And for one sinner who repents, there is great joy in heaven. All these truths are quite familiar to you, raised in the bosom of our Orthodox mother Church; - but we remind you of this because the spirit of sadness and despondency, having darkened the mind and heart, also removes saving thoughts. And so, if you have not yet received peace of your conscience (which, however, we do not think, but believe that you have been reconciled by it), but when the spirit of sadness and despondency still torments you, quickly resort with repentance to our most merciful Lord Jesus Christ, having the firm intention not to return to the first place and, asking the most merciful Master for this, may he strengthen and confirm your will in this, and may he forgive you for the sins you have committed, and try to resort to the minister of the church and the mysteries of God, who has the keys of decision, may he free you from the bonds that bind your spirit; and try to spend your life with the fear of God, according to St. His commandments, without arrogance, but in the hope of God’s help, and with humility, remembering his first attempt to anger the Lord, and that the brief sweetness of sin can be eternal grief. Moreover, delve into the actions of your heart and mind, whether they have high opinions about themselves, both in spiritual and secular matters: does not your thought humiliate others? If you feel them, try to expel them from your heart as quickly as possible and not give them a place, but those who creep in, to punish them for their friendship, sometimes receive God’s permission to fall into some sins that reproach the conscience. Have compassion for those around you who need your help; Pay attention to the poor, the orphaned and the wretched according to your strength. All this will attract God's mercy to you. We, the weak and feeble-minded, driven solely by compassion for you, having nothing more to offer you for consolation, with all our hearts wish you to calm down in your conscience, and strengthen yourself in firm trust in the mercy of our Creator, and in His help in the future to protect your good will to fulfill His Holy will. For which we dare to pray to His goodness, although we are unworthy. I entrust you to the omnipotent protection of God and, asking for His blessing on you, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I. L. and the many-sinner I. M. May 7, 1836 We did not respond to your letter, expecting your arrival, together with the most honorable.....; but, against our wishes, he visited us without you; His visit is pleasant, but it is regrettable to hear about the temptation that happened to you, which, with God’s permission, was raised by the enemy, to test you and to punish you, unknown to us by the destinies of God for sins, the absence of which no one dares to boast. From your letter we see and fully understand the grief you feel; truly participating in them, we regret you, and our grief is all the more sensitive for us because here, in some way, it seems as if we are also the culprits; although we do not feel reproach in our conscience, which, we think, anyone with a sane spiritual eye can see and judge. Not content with keeping the feeling of our condolences only in our hearts, we hasten, calling on God’s omnipotent providence and help, to write you these feeble-minded lines of ours, wanting to console you who are grieving and strengthen you, supporting your reasoning: in grief, it often happens that great people lose their minds and lose heart, we all require reinforcement and special God’s help in sorrows. May your foundation be firm and the pillar of your strength be faith! Believe that all the meetings that happen to us are not blind, but occur according to the will of God, when the providence of God is so attentive to creation that not even a bird will fall without the will of God, and the power of your head will not perish without it, then can any sorrow touch our hearts without the command of the Creator, leading all its secret bends and strength to bear the sorrow sent. He punishes with sorrows not only sinners like us, but there are also trials for the righteous; and for us to punish for sins and to cleanse them. But He does everything out of His abundant love. Goayud loves him and punishes him: he beats every son he accepts. If you endure punishment, it is as if God found you a son; for who is a son, the Father does not punish him. And if you are without punishment, you were partakers with Him: for you are by nature adulterers, but not of sons (Heb. 12:6, 7, 8). This is the teaching of St. The apostle should bring you strength; and there is a lot of decent and necessary things about this subject in St. scripture of teaching, which we leave for you to experience for yourself, because you have read enough for yourself. Don't forget to read the Apology of St. Demetrius of Rostov in quenching your sorrow, the Lord is able to strengthen you, comfort you, and set you free. Meanwhile, we offer you our advice: consider yourself guilty and worthy of sorrow, although not for what they suspect you of; but perhaps there are some other sins that the righteous court of God punishes for cleansing. And when we accept punishments with such intelligence, then sorrows are eased and completely abolished. And when you blame others, you will be more burdened. What is St. Isaac the Syrian writes in the 51st word: “When, for our sins, which we have committed carelessly, we are handed over by mercy into the hands of the Righteous Judge of all, then it is commanded to cast us under the rod of temptation until the future torment is eased for us. When this rod of the Judge approaches us, let us humble ourselves, remember untruths, and make confession before the Avenger, then we will soon be delivered from small temptations. If we become hardened in our sorrows, and do not confess that we are guilty of it, and are worthy of suffering even more than this; but we blame people, sometimes demons, and at some time the truth of God; and we justify ourselves, we affirm that we are innocent in such matters, and we think this and say: but we do not think, for God knows more than we do, and that throughout the whole earth the destinies are His; and because without His commandment (without permission), a person cannot be punished; For this reason we are left without help from God; and for this reason, everything that comes upon us (sorrowful) creates constant sadness in us, and our sorrows are difficult and from one to another, just as we are already attached until we know ourselves and humble ourselves.” Thank God that the Lord strengthened you and gave you the understanding to remain silent during times of confusion, and if you had spoken against the words, there could have been even more confusion; Believe that the Lord is strong, having punished you, to abolish these machinations of the enemy. Pray to God for the enemy, may he soften his heart and enlighten his heart’s eyes to see the truth; where he should (probably) believe to receive a blessing, the opposite turns out. Obvious darkness and demonic delusion, from which may the Lord deliver him. We wish you and your entire honorable family to completely calm down and be healthy mentally and physically; and asking for you the peace and blessing of God, and may He protect you from all the snares and snares of the enemy, and may He forgive you all your sins, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. June 18, 1836. In response to your first letter regarding penance, it goes without saying that once you have fulfilled it, it ceases and is resolved; having done so, be calm about it, and even more so when you wrote to me about it. To console your father with a word does not lie in our power, but in God’s, for He acts according to his faith. And if he was most comforted by these words, that I wanted to write to you about restraining myself from ardor; then, when I do this, won’t I be a reason for him to exact more punishment from you, and through this I will bring greater sorrow to you, which is why, although I intended to write something openly to you about this, I was afraid. Regarding the awareness of your weaknesses in front of our unworthiness, we will tell you as a consolation: that we heartily sympathize with you, we pray to the Lord to forgive you, and we forgive your sins; and we wish that the Lord will help you to resist the scorching arrows of the evil one, and even more so against the passion that dominates you. Although you yourself are quite famous, having been confirmed in the faith, and raised by the teachings of our mother Church, we consider it our duty to remind you that the main three enemy giants: love of glory, voluptuousness and love of money, strengthened by self-love, try to observe and take their power over our poor minds and hearts, and behind them it is no longer difficult and the whole cathedral of evil passions and sins uncontrollably captivate our spiritual city, and, depriving us of much-desired peace and tranquility, they create confusion, disorder and sedition in our wretched soul, which you see in your dispensation, without peace and tranquility of soul. And although we ourselves do not dare to think about ourselves that we have freedom from passions, but, wanting to strengthen you in the struggle and resistance to them, we offer you weak-minded advice that comes from zeal. Having undoubted faith in all the commandments of the Lord and the dogmas of St. Church, have the fear of God, which would contribute to the mind to bend your autocracy to the will of God. And without the fear of God, we cannot hope, as passionate people, to achieve the fulfillment of God’s will and love for Him and our neighbor. By the fear of God everyone avoids evil (Proverbs 15:27), and everywhere in many places in St. In Scripture we find fear preceding all virtues. We hope that the opinions of modern philosophers, which perhaps you happen to hear in society, or read yourself, which contradict the teachings of St. Churches do not have influence on you: then it is not so difficult for you to go through this work of a Christian. And for this reason it is necessary to study more often in the teachings of St. fathers and pray to the most merciful Lord to send His help to fulfill His Holy will. Considering your structure, you will always find the cause of sin to be one of the three passions described above; therefore, try to arm yourself against it and against those who follow it, with the fear of God, prayer, abstinence and looking at the end of the action - what sorrow it brings to the soul; Truly, temporary sin is not worth the sweetness of the sorrow that befalls the soul while still here, and about the future, if we do not repent, what can we say? But aren’t the occurrences of involuntary sorrows also the origin of our own evils? Then when they happen, you should consider them a blessing from God, and acknowledge your guilt, repent before God; but do not blame your neighbors and make them the cause of your evils. They are only the weapons of God, which He is forced by love to raise against us in order to save us. In such humility, the Lord will remember us, and by easing sorrow, he will cleanse us from sins. When you do this, you will also feel calm from the passions that worry you: pride, anger, enmity, malice and other countless evils, for they are the products of these three passions: love of fame, love of voluptuousness and love of money. When the passion that dominates you, an outgrowth of the two, love of glory and lust, rages over you, having accepted the fear of God in your heart, submit yourself before God, imagine your weakness, and ask for His help, you will feel it, just don’t be too lazy to make at least three bows, asking for help. Beware of accepting the advice of the enemy, which, before committing a sin, represents God as loving mankind, but after committing a sin, leads to despair. The same is true of the opinions of today’s sages, who are trying to drown out their conscience with them; but on the contrary, there is no peace in their souls, but hell. May the Lord deliver you from all these opposing networks and snares of the enemy, and may all your sins forgive you. Accept this advice of ours, in which you do not look for the rhetoric and wisdom of this age, but see that it stems from the sincerity of our heart, the desire for spiritual peace and salvation for you, and is based not on your own reason, but on the teaching of St. fathers. When you find relief in your conscience, through revelation, even in writing, then we do not forbid you to write to us more often about your infirmities; although you will not receive an answer to your letter soon, one revelation with faith will already ease your conscience. This is stated by many fathers, of whom St. Moses, in the word of St. Cassian to Leontin the Abbot, in the 4th part of the Philokalia, says: “the very thing that reveals and reveals evil thoughts to the father, they wither, and create the weakest, like a serpent, carried from a dark hole into the light, trying to use flight and concealment, so also evil thoughts, with a fair amount of confession and by expressing what has happened, they try to flee from man.” When you are afraid that someone else will get the letter, you don’t have to sign your name; because your hand is quite known to us; or so, if you can, explain it to someone, and, according to your faith, you will receive peace. We express our heartfelt condolences for the grief that has befallen you through the unfortunate resolution of your wife; but thanks be to the Lord that the Lord preserved her and is now in health. Attribute this visit to your sins; Bring repentance for them to the Lord God, Who is always ready to have mercy on those who repent and those who resort to Him. Asking for you, your wife and your children the peace and blessing of God, and wishing you health and prosperity, with our respect we abide your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. We received your writing on December 26th in a timely manner; if we fail to respond to this, we hope you will forgive us. Seeing from this your misfortune in the waves of the passionate sea, we deeply regret you, and, not having so much reason, we cannot give you any other reliable advice, except to resist the scorching arrows of the enemy with the fear of God, to call on God’s help, both during the battle and before it, to bring to mind what torment of conscience can cause as a result, and then the future judgment, if the end does not come in repentance life, one must also be afraid of the blindness of the mind, by God’s permission; for your unauthorized confession and revelation, the Lord is able to forgive you and strengthen you in mental health; and to grant the strength to courageously stand against the passions, which we earnestly wish for you, and handing over to the omnipotent protection of God, we remain, your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I. L. and the many-sinner I. M. January 17, 1837 Congratulations on your newborn daughter... God grant that she and the one who gave birth to her may be strengthened in the Lord in the health of soul and body. We sincerely rejoice that the Lord has given you peace in your family, which you have been deprived of for a long time. You added there “according to our sins” - your consciousness and correction appeased the Master, and peace was established! May your conscience always be your compass as you navigate the stormy ocean of this life, guiding you to the haven of peace. Look for its destruction within yourself without your obvious guilt; Apparently some secret things were announced to the priest and he felt and acted against them. I was embarrassed, depriving you and myself of peace: henceforth may the peace of God rest upon you, given to us by the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, through your keeping His saving commandments. Your dreams cannot be completely given faith, for the sake of charm, or completely brushed aside, for the sake of truth; but be calm, and if you begin to believe every dream, then it is very dangerous for the sake of delusion, which is very diverse. While testifying to you and your family our respect, with the desire for health and prosperity, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinful I.L. and the many-sinners I.M. December 11, 1837. O.P. Glory and thanksgiving to the most merciful Lord, who granted you His help, having corrected your external affairs in the T, to return safely to the bosom of your family. And that your soul remained unhurt from the arrows of the enemy. Although there were shots fired, and several stings were felt; but these can be healed more easily than those who are deeply rooted, however, these too should not be left without healing, so that they do not get sick again. And they wouldn't do any harm. Stand within the boundaries of the fear of God and humility, through remembering past illnesses. Avoid guilt, that is, cases that lead to this, pray to the most merciful Lord to give you help to do His holy will: do not be seduced by instantaneous sweetness, there is eternity! We can no longer write to you, but we are confident that the Lord Himself will tell you how sorry we are for you and wish you prosperity and health of soul and body, entrusting you to the protection of God with your family, and asking for you the peace and blessing of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinful I. L. and the many-sinful I. M. September 4, 1838. Since you visited our monastery, we have not known anything about your stay and health, mental and physical. And since you wanted us sometimes with our lines to excite you to do the commandments of God: then, fulfilling your desire, although we do not know what position you are in, with our meager but diligent writing, we invite you to remind yourself of what we, sinners, according to your faith, for the benefit of your soul, talked to you, or wrote to you in writing. But most of all, strive to have the fear of God and concern for the fulfillment of St. commandments: for they lead to eternal life. If on the path of this life something sorrowful is presented to you, then accept it only as something sent from God, for the cleansing of your sins; bear it with humility, deeming yourself worthy of this existence; do not complain, do not be faint-hearted, do not blame others, but only blame yourself, believing that you caused your sins; in such a dispensation, the Lord, having visited you with sorrow, will soon send you consolation; but on the contrary, if grumbling, cowardice and blaming others possess you, then your sorrows will be aggravated. From which may the Lord deliver you. We wish you and your entire family peace, health and prosperity, and, asking for you the peace and blessing of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the great sinner I. L. and the great sinner I. M. November 15, 1838. From your letter and from a personal witness, Fr. and….. made sure that you were ill; but glory to the most merciful God that He, while punishing the punishment, did not give over to death (Ps. 117:18), and that He granted you the senses to resort first to mental healing, and then to physical; It is most likely that mental illnesses are a bodily fault. Are you embarrassed that you unworthily partook of the most pure mysteries of Christ? I assume that you did not confess everything, but only what you remembered? Who could be worthy of this priceless gift? You regretted your sins: what you remembered, you confessed; and received permission from their spiritual father. This should pacify you, complementing the rest with faith and hope in God’s ineffable mercy and in the merits of our Savior. When you are embarrassed about something for which you confessed without detail, as it is written in our confession books; you can always do this by visiting your confessor; He will definitely spend a few minutes for you to tell you your sins in detail, and will give you permission, and you be peaceful, beware of inclinations in the future. In another letter, or in the first, you write about your grief over your wife’s refusal to come to our monastery. This is God's work, not ours. We must wait for His calling, then there will be benefit. And so, having surrendered to the will of God, try to calm yourself down. And we wish you to be completely healthy, mentally and physically, and, asking for you the peace and blessing of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. December 3, 1838. We congratulate you as well, having celebrated the joyful holiday of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, may the peace given to us by His coming pacify your heart, agitated by various passions and adventures; drowning in the waves, cry out to the Savior: “Save me, I am perishing and of course he will hear your cry and groaning. The cause of external sorrows and internal boredom, consider the actions of passions, to which your autocracy bends and angers God's justice. You are punished here, so that you are not condemned with the world: and, having tasted the bitter fruits of doing passions, you will evade them in every possible way. Do not blame anyone, neither people, nor nature, nor the enemy, but only consider yourself guilty, and try to cry out to the Lord with the feeling of a publican: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! And in all your deeds, intentions and words, humble your wisdom and action; The Lord will look upon all this, and will resolve the bonds of passion that bind you, and will grant you freedom; In your absence from home, protect yourself with the fear of God. Your election to the position did not occur without the will of God, and He, having placed you at this level, will give you reason and strength to fulfill it, in accordance with the will of God and the power of the laws, just do not rely on your reason, but seek it from the Lord, asking for help in this regard, and do not reject the advice of those closest to you. Regarding your question about penance, we forgot to inform you: on the twelve feasts the fulfillment of it is reserved: which you should follow. The dream you saw cannot be rejected, for the sake of truth, and it is dangerous to accept charms for the sake of it. Leave it in the middle position. And even if something seemed similar in an event, one must attribute fear to one’s dignity, and so as not to be deceived by such visions in the future; Can our passionate hearts and minds be worthy of receiving grace-filled revelations? Entrusting you to the protection of God and asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. December 31, 1838. Thanking you for your writing and congratulations on the holiday, we congratulate you in return, but having already celebrated the bright holiday of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: in our desire for you, both external blessings and spiritual treasures, we are sure that you do not doubt, and therefore we find it unnecessary to assure you with this scripture, as usually happens when congratulating. We sincerely rejoice that you were honored to be a partaker of the Last Supper of our Savior Lord Jesus Christ, on the very day of its remembrance: and that through this you were at peace. Therefore, we are not surprised that various embarrassments visited you afterwards. We all have to fight the invisible spirits of evil. What is St. The apostles Peter and Paul write quite clearly in their epistles. First: watch, stand, our adversary the devil, like a lion, roaring, walks, looking for someone to devour: but resist him firmly in faith (1 Peter 5:2). And second: our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). And both of them teach us to arm ourselves against him by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the second commands us to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, through which we will be able to quench all the arrows of the evil one (Eph. 6:17). These weapons also require humility. For the Savior Himself taught us this, saying: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29), use these weapons: faith that without the will of God nothing can happen to you: hope that everything that He sends will be for your good. Submit to Him in all humility and cut off your enemies with the spiritual sword, but only verbally calling on the name of Jesus, and not mentally; and with humility, fearing to think that when he calmed down he had already defeated his enemies. They have a trick in this too: pretend to be defeated in order to seduce with conceit and then they will have more strength to attack for the sake of pride. When studying spiritual books, you should know that the main three passions are armed against us: love of glory, lust and love of money, and from them the vanquished former and other matters have a free attack, but also an entrance into our hearts. Consider yourself, are not all of these strong giants fighting against you, or any of them? All the same, even one, having won, takes away freedom and blinds the eyes of the soul. If you find it, and you will certainly find yourself fighting them, then try to arm yourself against them with virtues that are contrary to them; you are troubled by the fact that I will not have greater wealth, and therefore my glory will diminish, they will revile me, and I cannot have sufficient maintenance; All this, entering into thought in advance, confuses your heart. Resisting this, surrender with faith in the will of God and calm yourself with humility. Isn’t God able to make the poor rich and bring the rich into poverty? He humbles this and exalts this, he humbles and enriches; Wealth is not always useful, but for many it has served to the destruction of the soul, but on the contrary, a moderate state, and even poverty, have served as the acquisition of salvation. Cast your sorrow upon the Lord, and He will nourish you, commanding and not caring for the morning. Once you have fulfilled your penance, be free. May the Lord forgive you, and may the peace of God rest on you and your entire family; and also His richly gifted blessing may be upon you. We abide, your unworthy pilgrims, the great Hieromonk L. and the great sinner I.M. April 10, 1839. We wrote to you in response to your letter on ..... April 10th, we hope that you have already received it. And now and again, when this faithful opportunity has occurred, accept our zealous respect with the wish for you to have a peaceful and calm stay. If your heart still hesitates with doubts about your future condition, then we again advise you to strengthen yourself with faith in our Lord, with filial obedience and devotion to Him. We are sure that you are a true Christian, you want to inherit the kingdom of God and eternal life, and on the way to this bliss, sorrows are also necessary. So that you can be more confident in the truth of this, read this year’s Christian reading, in the month of March, on page 336, article 21: about the need for sorrows on the path to the kingdom of God. By carefully delving into these truths, you will strengthen your despondent spirit - just from the opinion of the temptations that may befall you and, with the help of God, being disposed to send at least what pleases Him, to receive with thanksgiving, you will spend your life more calmly. Maybe you read this article, but sometimes just running through it, without special attention, could not get as much benefit as from repetition and attention. May the Lord bless you and your family, to whose protection, entrusting you, we abide, your unworthy pilgrims, the great sinner I. L. and the great sinner I. M. May 3, 1839. In your first letter you describe your situation: the struggle between light and darkness, passions take over your heart, and you are confused and disorganized, without inner peace and silence. The light of our holy faith enlightens every person who comes into the world. This light also shows you the abomination and vileness of passionate slavery, and you, although weakly, have a war with them, being defeated and again rebelling, bring repentance to the Lord for your captivity, asking for freedom from it. What would happen if this light went out? then the eternal slavery of passions and darkness embrace a person. You envy virtuous people, you are amazed at their pure joy, inner peace, peace of mind, of course feeling deprived of them. But do you also know their insides? and also what kind of struggle do they endure about the disorder? just as no one knows your dispensation except you, so you do not know theirs. But they also have a struggle, they are allowed to be in darkness; read y st. Isaac the Syrian in the 31st word, in the middle, about the future prosperity.....; you will see how peace is achieved. Take into your mind the teaching of our Savior more often: learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). The sight of one's shortcomings, one must inevitably come to terms with, according to the word of St. Climacus: beggars, seeing the wealth of others, humble themselves before them and become more aware of their poverty. When you resort to prayer, you see it as unclean and say: what kind of prayer is this? It’s true that it’s bad, but it’s not pharisaical; but it seems, although not completely Mytareva, but closer to her. And one should not leave her, reproaching herself for her filth and trying to call out her thoughts. If you leave it, what kind of thing will you get? There, at least for its malfunction we condemn ourselves, and perhaps when even one word can appease God, we are ignorant, but only humble ourselves. If we leave prayer, we will become completely cold. Read in the Christian reading of this year, in the month of May, on page 263, about the blessedness of the believers of His Eminence Philaret of Moscow, towards the end of the article: “in your heart” and so on; there you will see that even when cooled down, you should not give in to despondency and give up deeds of virtue. For this is the bliss of those who have not seen but believed. And so, try to follow the path of God’s commandments, resisting the hostile forces that interfere with this, not with your own strength, but with God’s help, calling on it through prayer. In case of mental inclinations, bring repentance to God with humility, not having peace and tranquility of soul, consider yourself unworthy of them, and endure with humility. Some receive grace-filled gifts, but become arrogant and lose them again. Pride is the cause of all our disasters; and the humility of all blessings through guilt. The life of Father Theodore, however, is shortened. But we are also pleased that the memory of the righteous man did not remain in oblivion; His virtues are partly known to us, but God knows them even more; and undoubtedly He is in the villages of the righteous, enjoying the fruits of his labors and praying for those who honor his memory. Entrusting you and your family to the protection of God, may He protect you from all the snares and snares of the enemy and help you in fulfilling His holy will, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. October 4, 1839. Your grief over coldness towards God should be replaced by humility and surrender to the will of God, and not be embarrassed, as the holy fathers strengthen us about this; Enough has been said to you about this. You write that the Jesus Prayer has left you almost completely, but it seems that you left it, but it was not the reason at all. Try as much as possible to engage in it verbally and in service, for the Lord gives prayer to the one who prays, but you should also not be embarrassed for not acquiring this sacred gift, look at your scattered structure and morality; the world and its vanity darken the light of the mind, and you are connected with it by strong ties. If you are deprived of this much-desired gift of prayer, turn to those means by which we can prove the love of God - to the fulfillment of His holy Gospel commandments: he who loves Me keeps My commandments, among which you will find humility, without which not a single virtue can be favorable to God. Read about prayer from St. Gregory of Sinaita; in the number of chapter 15 on the 84th sheet there is the 8th chapter, and then on the 84th sheet, on the back the 7th, about delusion; from which you will understand the majesty of prayer and perhaps be careful that the Lord does not allow you to acquire this, so that you do not suffer harm. And Elder Paisius wrote to Theodosius, Archimandrite of Safronievo, rejoicing that the books of the Philokalia will be published, but also regrets that having fallen into the hands of many, and unknowingly taking up mental work, that is, prayer, harm may occur; from which may the most merciful Lord deliver you. May the Lord grant you to fulfill His desire and vow, to worship St. His saint Saint Mitrofaniy, and may He send His mercy upon you through His prayers. We wish you, with all your dear wife and children, health and prosperity for many years to come and celebrate the all-joyful holiday of Holy Easter. We welcome your unworthy pilgrims, the great sinner I.L. and the great sinner I.M. April 24, 1840. Father L...... On the 18th he went to Tikhonov Hermitage, I don’t know how long he will stay there; at least Uspensky returned to us by the post. I congratulate you on being worthy to venerate the relics of the holy saint of God Mitrofan, and to be in Zadonsk at the tomb of St. Tikhon and St. George; a in Yelets at Blessed Melania. May their prayers help you in the field of everyday life for the achievement of the kingdom of God. I regret the incident that brought you insult and embarrassment after receiving the holy mysteries. The best way you have done to calm yourself is by resorting to trust and pouring out your soul before God. After receiving such gifts and consolations, the envy of the enemy was occupied with this case, godly deeds are always tested, either by preceding or subsequent temptation, so that the mind does not exalt itself about the acquired good, descending into the depths of humility, cast yourself before the Lord with repentance and hope for His mercy. There was no need to rinse your mouth, just wash your mouth; And although you can take it into your mouth and rinse it, you must swallow it. May the Lord have mercy on you and calm you down for this unintentional incident! You are talking about your bad trade, and no one can boast about it now, except those who sell bread, for this product is needed most of all, they don’t care so much about anything else, and therefore there is no one to buy it. It’s amazing how suddenly they became hopeless about food, and nothing was heard from the month of May; and now it’s even terrible to hear what famine has befallen the surrounding areas; however, although the reserves of bread for unnecessary luxury have been depleted, there is still some, but only remotely, which is why it will not be without difficulty. According to some predictions, the 40th year is equal to the 12th year, and so it is, only in a different way our fatherland has suffered disaster. The Lord is able to have mercy and give comfort to His servants; Let us serve as a lesson for a long time this year. I testify to you and your entire family my true respect, with the desire for peace, health, prosperity and salvation, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I. M. June 20, 1840 We congratulate you on your safe return from M-y: together with the upcoming St. post. We wish that your intention to visit us in the monastery will be fulfilled; which would be nice for us too; which circumstance we present to the cooperation of the will of God; If this pleases Him and is useful to you, then everything will be fulfilled according to our common desire. You complain about your enemy - passion.....; We carry the vessels of our passions within ourselves, and we love their guilt, which is why they chill us. Vessels of passions: peace, pleasure; They are also the faults of passions, in addition, communication with the opposite sex, words and thoughts that feed passion. At the end of the 15th degree, read y St. John Climacus means to destroy it; the final one is humility! At St. In the 79th word you will find the reason for Isaac’s strong abuse - pride. The words of Scripture can be attributed to the incident that happened to you: “The Lord punished me, but did not give me over to death” (Ps. 118:18), i.e., the Lord did not allow me to completely fall; but one must also repent of this, humble and repent oneself; The Lord is strong and will grant you forgiveness and peace of conscience, but in the future, protect yourself from such cases, not relying on your own strength, but ask for God’s help. We wish you to benefit from reading the inspired words of the great Father of St. Isaac the Syrian; in truth this book is an imperishable treasure. As you pay attention and do it, your understanding of these words will become enlightened in your mind. From the beginning you didn’t understand anything about it, but now you see the light better. You write that you met your Eminence and visited him, and you approve of him; We hear this review from many, and we rejoice that after a long orphanhood, the Lord comforted this flock! While we wish you and your entire family peace, health and prosperity, and asking for God's blessing on you, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. November 19, 1840. We received your scripture dated the 23rd day of December and accepting your confession and condolences about failure to fulfill the proper rules of abstinence from fasting, we pray to the Lord that He will forgive you both this and all your sins; Only you will strengthen yourself by faith and the fear of God henceforth for the fulfillment of St. His commandments and church laws established for our salvation. The rule on the rosary, in case of bodily weakness, is not forbidden to finish while sitting; it is better even this way than not at all. On holidays and Sundays it is left. Forgive us that until now we have not been able to deliver to you the booklet Fr. John: about the creation of the finger, proof and addition, herewith I forward it. And asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. December 27, 1840. We read your letter, and we see that you are in need of helping your sister, we advise you to fulfill it by surrendering to the will of God. He is able to send you His help as a reward for your labors. Until then, in your patience, gain your souls, learn this, which is always necessary for us, we are not surprised that you read the article without attention; Perhaps this is how many are saved from the damage that when reading absent-mindedly, they read only printed letters, but do not comprehend the subtlety of the mind. We read spiritual books, filled with spiritual intelligence, but we also only read the letters; Rarely does anything fall on the frozen ground of the heart. Maybe those people have read the ones you write about; we would like to bring to their attention, but they also passed without attention. Pointing out this to them is dangerous, it’s not our business; at least you will be more careful ahead and not get carried away too much….. and under the flowers there are thorns………………………………. Let us leave the reproof to those who have the right to enter, and, having noticed this damage, they will try to correct it. God protects simple hearts. May the Lord bless you to correct your path to M–y, and back, safely and safely, while maintaining spiritual benefit, protect yourself with the fear of God and call on His holy help. We show our respect to your entire family, asking for the peace and blessing of God and wishing you health and prosperity, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. January 21, 1841. Glory to God, who has preserved you from the snares of the evil enemy, stretched out to snare those who are careless about their salvation, or who are exalted about their imaginary corrections, and henceforth may the law of the Lord be a lamp for your feet, and for all your paths, so that you may walk in the right path and not stumble; And above all, remember that in our humility the Lord will remember us, and before we even humble ourselves, we have sinned (Ps. 119:67). And strengthen your righteous deeds with this clay, they will be acceptable before God. When he comes to us......, we are ready, according to our strength, to receive him and calm him down; As for my healing him, this is in the power of God, but we do not dare take it upon ourselves. For a believer, although it is possible to receive everything, it is only what is useful, and not everything that we desire and ask; why it is necessary to leave this to the will of God, which arranges everything for good, and accomplishes our salvation through nasty adventures. We testify to our deepest respect, wishing you all health, mental and physical, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the great sinner I. L. and the great sinner I. M. February 19, 1841. Today is your angel's day! We congratulate you on this memorable day for you, the celebration of the saint whose name you bear. He will certainly intercede for your salvation at the throne of the Most High; and we are sinners, even if we are unworthy, but we accept the courage in our wretched prayers to God, remembering your name, to ask for health and salvation for you and your entire family; and may He send His peace and blessing upon you and your home. From February 20 and March 3 we have your writings. In the first we received your news of the death of Fr. . . . A... in truth, blessed, may the Lord rest his soul in His kingdom: through waves of sorrows he reached a quiet refuge, and without them he might still have wandered in this vale; but who knows, could he have walked away so calmly, having pacified his conscience? Although it is regrettable for a parent and those who knew him to be deprived of the hope of their consolation even in the prime of their years, God foresaw the best for him, “let neither malice change his mind, nor flattery deceive his soul,” it would have pleased him to take him into eternity, inviolably of these harms, together and with his companions, to enjoy eternal and true blessings. God bless you for remembering friendship and caring for the remembrance of his soul. To your father and your entire family we express our deepest respect and, entrusting you all to the protection of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the many-sinful I.L. and the many-sinners I.M., and the many-sinful monk I....ky. March 7, 1841. At one post office I received two of your letters, dated April 27 and May 1, the last one I write in general, and the first one especially to you, as it concerns you. Don’t worry about whether you congratulated me on the holiday or not, I am confident in your zeal and disposition, that’s enough; Do not doubt mine either; I take my heartfelt participation in your sorrows; I'm sorry for your cowardice; it will not help at all and will not alleviate sorrows. But it is better to resort with faith to the merciful Lord: “Save me, I am perishing” - in the waves of cowardice from sorrow. He is strong to stretch out his hand to you, just like St. Petra, I'm drowning in the sea. Much can be written about endurance of sorrows. Although you can learn about this from Scripture and from the experience of those who have gone through it, you must learn during the test. Talk to the Elder of Sira, St. Isaac, he says: “There is no one for whom the time is not bitter, in which temptations are filled with poison.” Read words 34, 35, 36 and 37; all of them strengthen a person in sorrows; otherwise it won’t even occur to you. May the Lord give you consolation, to whose protection I entrust you and your family, I remain the desirer of your salvation and health and an unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. Every Christian should have his own cross, just as a wanderer should have his staff, according to the words of the wise. But these crosses are different, and should not be of our choice, but which one the Lord will send to whom, and it is impossible that we should not feel the burden of them. Writes St. Isaac the Syrian in the 37th word: “there is no one who does not grieve during training, and there is no one who does not feel bitter during this time, in whom temptations are filled with poison.” Confirm the benefits and necessity of sorrows from the 34th, 35th, 36th and 37th words of this Saint. Although at the present time we do not comprehend the essential benefit of them, we later see from the consequences how many benefits we are guilty of. The adventure you described was difficult for you, but with God’s help you endured it, but a nail of resentment remained stuck in your heart, which worries and confuses you; Of course you don’t want this, but you don’t have the strength to resist. You see that through the grief that has occurred, your inner dispensation has been exposed, and you must recognize your weakness, humble yourself and pray to the Lord to send His help to eradicate anger from your heart, and may He correct your family circumstances that require correction through His destinies. And also pray for them, whom you yourself call benefactors. As you prepare to travel to St. places on pilgrimage, then the enemy raised this storm in order to upset your spiritual structure and deprive you of peace, while it is more needed for you. May the Lord help you and destroy the machinations of the enemy, and grant you peace to go on a deliberate journey. Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, we remain your unworthy pilgrims, the great sinner I. L. and the great sinner I. M. May 6, 1841. The olives and two barrels of church wine sent from you were duly received through our novice Alexei Efimov. We offer you our most humble gratitude for your diligence. And we pray to the most merciful Lord, may He send His peace and blessing upon you and your entire family, and reward you with spiritual gifts and the blessings of this world, which you also use to please God and glorify His holy Name. Exactly fulfilled according to your instructions. The olives were left to Father Fr. L–u; and one barrel of wine was given to the skete church, and the other was personally given to Father Abbot A–iy, who is with us at this time; came to visit us. He thanks you earnestly, and will write to you himself. Father, oh. L–d, is very unwell, cannot write himself, but has instructed me to express to you with gratitude and his deepest respect; which you also receive from me, with the wish for you, your wife and your children, peace of health and prosperity, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, much-sinful I.M. September 16, 1841. And you, together with your father, offer our most humble gratitude for your zeal for us, the poor. I cannot hide from you about the illness of our dear father, Fr. Leo, his health is noticeably weakening, yesterday there was a solemn unction over him, consisting of seven priests and two deacons: Fr. Abbot Anthony was in charge, Fr. Hegumen Varlaam, Fr. builder Gerontius, Fr. Gabriel, Fr. John, Fr. Joseph and I, hierodeacons: Fr. Paphnutius and Nikon; and a multitude of brethren were present at the performance of this mystery; his illness consists of pain in the right side of the chest, accumulation of sputum, and hardness of the abdomen; does not want to take medications. This upsets us a lot, but who can resist the will of God? I ask you to convey this sad news to our venerable benefactors. If you and your entire family wish peace, health and salvation, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. September 16, 1841 First, I congratulate you on the upcoming holy fast, healing your soul and body, and then I congratulate you on the approaching day of your angel! In my desire for the true good of you, you truly have no doubt, and in this regard, although I feel like a sinner, I dare to beg the Lord to grant you this, that is, health and salvation, but in order to gain the latter you need both strengthening in faith and surrendering yourself to the will of God, in which way He leads us to the desired goal, without testing us: but in all trials with painful and sorrowful visits, to see the finger of God, a not human actions, which are nothing more than the weapon of God acting in the matter of our salvation. I have heartfelt compassion for you, seeing you sick in body. But doesn’t our heavenly Father grieve more for us when he sees us sick in soul? For this reason, he allows illness and sorrow to befall us, so that we may be healed spiritually. He rejoices when he sees us coming to a feeling of repentance, looking at and blaming our madness, and, although involuntarily, resigning ourselves; Yes, and His angels rejoice over this; faith shows us this triumph! You are now experiencing this for yourself, your body hurts and, attributing to yourself the guilt of this illness, you bring repentance, and God accepts it: and will surely give healing, not only to the body, but also to the soul; give thanks to Him and calm your spirit. I partly understand your everyday situations, and I forgive your confusion, due to human weakness, but what is the use of it? It is not possible to take any measures, but to expect God’s care for yourself, caring for food even for the dumb, and to continue to fulfill your duty, of course it hurts your heart to see your relatives in a cramped situation, but could it not be the same when you lived with them? And now, whenever you had the opportunity to help them and did not help, you would be guilty. Over time, maybe you will be useful to them, and now they can judge and forgive you, but if you do something against your conscience, then nothing will happen to you or them. Confirm your faith and hope in God, He is able to work all things for good. Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. March 2, 1842. Passion Week has come, in which we remember the great sacraments that took place for our salvation; and even more so the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered for our sins, shed His priceless blood to wash them away. He did not commit sin; flattery was found in His mouth. But we, sinners, if we suffer something, we are guilty of it, and we suffer worthily. What about our suffering versus the suffering of our merciful Redeemer? and should we not accept them with thanksgiving and patience, considering the innocent sufferings of the Lord? Wouldn't reasoning and reflection about the passions of the Lord also serve you to console and strengthen you in the patience of your illness? I have no doubt that you are convinced that your illness was allowed by God to cleanse your sins, then do not regret much about the flesh when your soul is healed. But the thought of the disruption of your trade upsets you a lot and adds to the pain of your heart, but it seems so to you, and the Lord is strong and can support it. Do not rely on yourself that you could have done better: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). Having written to you for consolation, as much as the Lord has enlightened me, I sincerely sympathize with you, and from the sincerity of my heart I wish you recovery. Everything is possible from God! He is able to give reason to the doctor and to the doctor the power to heal you. May the most merciful Lord comfort you, deigning to accept His most pure Mysteries, according to your intention; then to celebrate with heartfelt joy the bright feast of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and to celebrate with your entire family in mental and physical health and tranquility; and on this holiday I wholeheartedly congratulate you, as well as your father, bringing him my deepest respect, as well as you, and I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. April 14, 1842. Your most venerable father has finished......the course of this life, gone into eternity, which is the path that lies ahead for all of us, only the time of which, hour and day, lies in the depths of God’s destinies; and the time already determined by God was completed on it. He went on a path of no return, his relatives and friends lament the separation from him, and the sorrow of their hearts is excusable due to human weakness, but faith must strengthen us, and according to the teachings of St. Apostle, do not grieve for the dead, like those who have no hope, that is, unbelievers: if Christ died and rose again, then there is hope of resurrection for those who have died. Our duty is, according to the teachings of our Church, to help our deceased relatives and friends: to appease the most merciful Lord and the righteous Judge, in this life, as if a person has sinned, may he forgive him, with prayers and alms. Which you probably do, by commemorating a bloodless sacrifice, which is also performed with us. We received your letter on the 26th, in which you ask for the commemoration of the deceased, and at the same time we served a memorial service and recorded it on the table for remembrance, on the psalter and on the proskomedia, and they also commemorate in the monastery where it should be. He went to the Lord with faith, in the hope of a future life, which is why the Lord honors him with such commemoration. May the Lord vouchsafe him to receive the kingdom of heaven and create for him eternal memory! May the rest of you, your spouse and children, be comforted and preserved in peace, keeping you from the snares and snares of the hostile. You are now faced with a feat in organizing your family and trade; and it is impossible for this to happen without sorrow and temptation; which you hint at somewhat, but I cannot penetrate into the details; That’s why I’m writing to you briefly: in all your perplexities, sorrows and temptations, run to the most merciful Lord, seeking help and permission from Him. The Lord is generous and merciful to all who call on Him in truth, and through the Prophet David He Himself says: call on Me in the day of your sorrow, and I will hear you and destroy you (Ps. 49:15), and call on the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God, She is a quick and well-known helper to the Christian race. And so, having such strong support, do not lose heart and do not lose heart; but be strengthened by the hope of God’s mercy. Our monastery was visited by His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev on the 20th, at the end of the fifth hour, and before the all-night vigil he served a requiem for D... In.... B–f; I honored the memory of our dear father Fr. Leo at his grave, visited our monastery, listened to the all-night vigil; and the next day at six o’clock in the Skete I listened to the liturgy; visited some of our cells, and treated everyone very kindly and favorably; left comforting impressions in our hearts, love for his saintly person. At 10 o'clock I left the monastery for the city of Kozelsk and ate there. B–x and at 2 o’clock we will go along the highway to Kyiv. I believe that on the 22nd your city had the good fortune to see this great hierarch within its borders; I just don’t know if you happened to see him, in your sad procession; for you were surely busy with the burial of your father. With his arrival at our monastery, the Lord sent down His grace, watered the earth with beneficial rain, after about a month-long drought; and through his archpastoral blessing, the grace of spiritual consolation and joy poured into our hearts. To your family, wife and mother, I ask you to express my deepest respect, and asking for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim I.M. May 29, 1842. You write about your commercial and economic situation, that it is difficult due to the depletion of 60 thousand in capital according to the will of your late father-in-law. You grumble about this and repent that you are sinning before God. May the most merciful Lord forgive you and confirm you in faith and hope in the wealth of His goodness and generosity, how many examples do we see that the rich capital left to children did not serve them for their benefit, but for their frustration; but on the contrary, and with a small capital, with the blessing of God and parents, they settled down in a better condition. And here is one example of F... G...b, left after his father, had to divide 200 thousand capital into three parts; and the establishments were and remain the same; It seemed that it was also impossible for him to exist in their circulation, but the consequences were that where God’s blessing is, there mercy increases. So the Lord is able to support and arrange you, and there is no doubt about that; just remember the word of God: seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). Just as you had trust in the deceased priest, you will not lose it now, and surely, with God’s help, you will keep it. It would seem to me that it wouldn’t hurt to delay the execution for six months, according to the will, everyone would have a turnover of that amount: did you notice any doubt on the part of……………? and of course, not without the advice of those knowledgeable and experienced in this, they put this into action. May the Lord send His blessing on you, on your entire family and on your affairs and protect you with the desired peace; for which I, daring to ask the merciful Lord, remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. July 5, 1842. The first fruits of your labors in trade, brought to the Lord in wine and oil, He will undoubtedly receive into the stench of a spiritual fragrance and send down His blessing on you and on your deeds; It can be visible, and sometimes invisible, only comprehended by faith alone. May the most merciful Lord comfort you and grant you His help; in your loneliness may he send such a person who could correct your affairs according to his conscience; since you were faithful and served your father, father-in-law, the deceased...... Give thanks to the Lord for everything and for your bodily illnesses, healing spiritual scabs: thanksgiving intercedes gifts from God and His mercy will attract; And with this, take care of the only thing required - salvation, correcting all your deeds, words and thoughts in the will of God, but in case of deviation, bring strict repentance with humility, and the God of peace will be with you! I ask you to express my sincere respect to your wife, I wish you and them with all your children health and prosperity, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful I.M. August 1, 1842. The most respected...... having given me your regards, I expressed your desire to have my feeble-minded lines written down: although I have nothing special to offer you, but only, fulfilling your desire, am I writing these lines; I am sure that you have no doubt about my desire for all good for you, and especially peace of mind; what I now find unnecessary to repeat, I don’t know what to give you instructions on, having no information about your dispensation, about other things, what better instruction can I give you, which is in the books of the fathers, who have fulfilled the path of the Lord’s commandments and have endured mental and physical sorrows for Him; imitate their faith and in the inconveniences and sorrows that occur, do not be faint-hearted; but seek God’s help and expect something better to come. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 20, 1842. Having read your parent’s letter, I imagined how it affected you and what grief it brought; such an important person to see himself insulted! The natural law and the law of grace, everything should encourage you to examine your conscience and reconcile it; you are asking for my advice, what should you do in this case? Despite all your rights, you cannot all be the judge of your parent’s actions. Although I am an outsider, I also do not dare to pass judgment on the shortcomings of others, having myself been filled with darkness of vices and uncorrections, however, not wanting to leave you in bewilderment, according to your faith, I dare to talk about these circumstances, calling on the Lord for help. I cannot justify your father, his word is cruel: as one can assume, he, being convinced that you were left with a large fortune and the complete ruler of it, and considering you obligated to help him, did not respect the reasons you set out about your difficult situation in trade and other matters, but considered them subterfuges, and how your letter seemed to him rough, due to the refusal of help, and a larger loan, as well as about your brother..... conditional clauses, all this irritated him; and it seemed like an instruction, nothing more than that they should not demand help from you, and about your brother; why did He write you such a stern and unpleasant letter. What to do in this case? If you make points of objections and justifications to him, I don’t know whether he will accept them with respect, and would no longer be offended; you must first pray to God for him, so that his heart will soften (and we, according to your commandment, served a prayer service for his health); secondly, how much can you resort to the virtue of humility, reject all justification from your thoughts, and consider yourself guilty and worthy, not only of such, but also of greater sorrows; although not for this, but for other sins, allowed by the sight of God to heal spiritual ulcers; with such a dispensation, you will be calmer, and grief will appear more bearable, and his heart will be filled with fatherly love for you. If you write to him, you cannot help but express your grief when you see him grieving at you; and it is not bad to ask for forgiveness if, out of ignorance, you insulted him without intention with your letter; one can remain silent about their demands for help and about their brother; maybe he will come to his senses through your humility. I have told you my thoughts about all this; if you find them respectful, then you can follow them; and if you doubt, then consult with your neighbors in spirit……. And……..; and in the first case, it doesn’t hurt to consult with them, since you trust them with these circumstances. I wish you to calm down and find peace with your father, and I wish your entire family to be healthy mentally and physically; With my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 10, 1842. I wrote to you: not knowing your capital, I can’t even judge how to help your parent, and you sent him a bill, trusting my thinness, but I’m all of the same opinion that it doesn’t hurt to help, although more than once, God is able to multiply small things, and, on the contrary, to diminish a lot. We see, and remain with large capitals, where there is no God's blessing; and with this, the small one increases; even with the current poor trade. And He looks at the will of our hearts! I read the attached letters: I don’t know the benefits from this marriage with which your neighbors flatter themselves; but according to the rules it cannot be done; only there is permission for bishops to authorize or allow such marriages. I wish peace, health, prosperity and salvation to your entire family and to you, and with respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the sinful hieromonk M. December 7, 1842. I just now got around to answering your letter, written on January 8th: I was away, then I was a little ill; and having recovered, I am writing to you and to many who are well-disposed towards my bad luck, responding to their writing. Thank you for congratulating me on the New Year and I ask you not to worry about the fact that you didn’t congratulate me on it first; I am confident in your disposition toward me in the Lord, and I know that you do not doubt mine either. May the Lord show His mercy to you and send peace and blessings upon you and your entire family! We have heard rumors about the death of your father......and it seems reliable, based on which, I wrote down his name in the table for commemoration in the psalter and at the liturgies in the monastery, without wasting time, although I have no news from you about this and I believe the reason for this is the slowdown of mail. May the Lord rest his soul in the kingdom of heaven! You mention your mental and physical weaknesses and loneliness. The spiritual ones were not visible to you, because not everything reached you; a saw them in others; It’s no wonder that they issued the court according to their own freedom; and now deeds and guilt have touched you, then your dispensation appeared to you in all its nakedness. And its fruits are not sweet, but bitter, which is why you need to repent of the past, ask God for help, and struggle against these passions that offend you so much, and even anger God. It is better to leave the thing in silence when indignant; and then, with a sound mind and a calm spirit, you can correct more mistakes in others, and give the matter a good start; take care that these passions do not grow old in your dispensation; when the plant is still young, it is more easily plucked out, but when it grows old and with much difficulty it can hardly be plucked out. When we anger God with our sins, then our external deeds do not have good success; you complain about bad trading; Although this is almost the universal fate of the present time, there are still people who are satisfied with their situation. All this depends on the hand of God; If you listen to Me, you will destroy the good earth; if you do not listen to Me, you will draw a sword; For the mouth of the Lord speaketh this (Isa. 1:19). This teaching of the Prophet to ancient Israel also applies to the new spiritual Israel - to us Orthodox Christians. Let us seek His mercy and reach out to good deeds, and then we will find mercy. Wishing you and your family peace, health, prosperity and salvation, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, much-sinful I.M. January 26, 1843. P.S. Having not yet had time to send the letter written to you, I receive yours dated the 22nd, in which you ask for the commemoration of your father......; I will say again, may the Lord rest his soul in His kingdom. You have attached a spiritual order from your parent to pay his debts of 6,100 rubles. to your part. Do you ask for my reasoning and guidance on this? This matter is already known to me, and you and I had correspondence about this. Even now I must also say that it is necessary to fulfill his will, although not suddenly, but from time to time; You yourself find that, God forbid, not doing this will be burdensome for your conscience. I agree with this; If your disposition is good, the Lord is strong to give you His help with parental prayers and blessings. If you leave it without fulfillment, then your conscience will not leave you without remorse: and sometimes there will be a decline in business; what to do, although not suddenly, but have the intention of paying this debt. This is my opinion, may God’s peace and blessing be upon you, great sinner I.M. January 26, 1843, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It seems that tomorrow is March 7, the day of your Angel, on which I heartily congratulate you, and I wish you to celebrate it many times in the future in health and prosperity. I also congratulate you on your acceptance of the most pure and life-giving mysteries of Christ, may this immortal meal be for you to heal your soul and body! When fulfilling the will of your parent, you describe what kind of grief you experienced; this is nothing more than the enemy’s deceit, which creates an obstacle to a good deed. But although grief and confusion occurred, your conscience remained more right and calmer. If you were to despise your parent’s word, your conscience could not be calm; and with any failure, its reproach could disturb you. I advised you to tell your mother about this in order to preserve the purity of your conscience: and she shouldn’t have to demand so much, because you also have a share in the capital, for your labors were common with your father: and even if you were a clerk, you could still receive salaries of thousands a year, and give something out of them, and even now the capital itself cannot bring anything without your labors, with the assistance of God’s help, which will be sent down more the blessing of your stepfather, as Scripture says: honor your father and mother in deed and word, so that you may find blessings from them: the father’s blessing establishes the homes of children, but the mother’s oath eradicates to the ground (Sir. 3: 8, 9). She was wrongly punished, but the Lord is able to pacify her and help you in your business affairs, with the blessing of your stepfather. May the Lord help you to spend the rest of this holy fast in a peaceful dispensation and pleasing God, and so to meet with heartfelt joy the bright feast of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. March 6, 1843. You are constrained by loneliness, work and troubles, and also by quiet trade, the latter is echoed almost everywhere. There is nothing to buy cheap bread for. It seems like a good thing, the Lord blessed with a grain harvest, so that they would have enough of it and would not require luxury; and apparently the Lord carefully, cutting it off, allowed it to be like this, His fate is inscrutable to us, He builds everything for the benefit, glory to His many bounties! You mention envy and ambition, which you previously did not notice in yourself, but now you accept ulcers from them; because you did not notice them in yourself, because there was no occasion to irritate them; and with this came action. We are not dispassionate, but we must struggle with passions and call upon God’s help; we must struggle not with arrogance, but with humility. I would like to write a lot, but time is short and everyone is distracted by visitors and their own. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, I remain with my respect, unworthy pilgrim, great sinner I.M. September 14, 1843. I wish peace, health, prosperity and salvation to you and your entire family. Please accept our common thanks for your diligence, from the beginnings of your trade, for our skete church a barrel of church wine, which was received in good condition. Also, for the candles for my cell, for the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, and from your previous and present offering, our church is sanctified by the burning of lamps, and your wine is offered during the sacred service with a bloodless sacrifice, may the Lord accept such your zeal into His most heavenly altar, into the stench of the spiritual fragrance, and may He send His aroma upon you and on your works rich blessing! You complain about your loneliness and your busy and boring life, and together you realize that God’s mercy strengthens your health. But where would we be without His fatherly providence for us and His all-powerful help? Do not complain, but thank His mercy. I know that you need a person to help, but there is none, there is only one everywhere. Look for and ask God to send you one, nowadays everything is somehow young and cool, there is no one to rely on, and children do not always justify their father’s care for them; however, it is impossible that there should not be such people who, having the fear of God, would keep their conscience. May the Lord send you such a helper! You reproach me for the expression “both our own people and visitors are distracting me from writing to you more.” Do you really consider this word to exclude you from among your number? In vain! This is only said to distinguish them from travelers, in order to distinguish the brethren living with them in the monastery. I don’t want to offend you in any way, but I would like you to see me in what position I was then: I had just arrived, I found more than 50 letters, hotels full of visitors; all of them, or I had to share time with everyone, and especially deal with each person; and here the brothers are coming (I won’t say my own), we need to deal with them, with each one; where was it possible for me to write long letters? His mind was so wasted and his strength was so exhausted that he could barely write to some people even in short lines. Maybe someone has extensive talents, but I confess, I’ll write one or two letters, and I’m already exhausted of mental strength; and the further I go, the more I feel both bodily weakness and visual weakness; it is already difficult to control the pen. You will forgive me for such a lengthy explanation, I wish to use it to restore you from stumbling. If you don’t believe me, then do as you wish, but my conscience is at peace. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 16, 1843. Venerable sisters... delivered to me your scripture, written on November 24; I see your sorrows, and I believe the burden of them: but what should we do? When our Heavenly Father stretches out His rod to punish His children, may He not offend them, but may He save them in eternal life. In the 51st word of Isaac the Syrian, read about this, there you will find: when we remember our sins and untruths, we will soon be delivered; and when we grumble and blame others, our sorrows increase. You yourself know that God does not tolerate those who grumble; you must restrain yourself from this, for your own good. Take a look at the present time, who will boast of prosperity? Trade is quiet everywhere, and expenses are high - there is nothing to buy for, God’s blessing with an abundance of bread does not console; because they get little money for it; and they can barely pay interest on money that has long been spent, but have nothing to live on. It seems that all this punitive providence of God is concerned about the salvation of souls, keeping them from disastrous luxury. But the merciful Lord will not send temptation beyond measure; and with it he will create abundance; Let us not weaken when punished by Him, for He, who loves Him, punishes; he beats every son whom he receives (Heb. 12:6). Through trust in your neighbor, the Lord is able to make up for the unfortunate situation on the other hand by giving His help. You trusted in the simplicity of your heart, and of course, if the scythe of death had not stopped the days of your debtor, he could have had a turn. ABOUT! the sea of ​​life, raised by adversity and storm, when will you tame? When will we flow to the quiet refuge of Divine will and cry out to Him: God, raise me up from aphids? Everything will pass, everything will pass, both sorrowful and joyful in this world, when we enter the next century; and there the most righteous and merciful Lord will reward everyone according to his deeds... Let us patiently bear the cross in this life, so that through a sorrowful path we may be brought into the eternal belly; More dangerous is the much longer path that leads to destruction, which many walk; however, the Lord, in His mercy, involuntarily takes us away from it and puts us on the path leading to eternal life; glory and thanksgiving to our philanthropic Lord! K–ya sisters respond with gratitude for your hospitality; They are here preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries. Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 29, 1843. Congratulations on entering the new year; May the Lord send down His rich blessing on you, on your entire family and on your home! And will keep you in health and prosperity for many years. Last letter, when I wrote to you, I was in a lot of turmoil, and there were a lot of letters; that’s why I forgot to mention your trade in bread at that very time; I didn’t read the letter in the other one, because of the speed, and the matter went out of my mind. You again ask for my blessing for your new bread trade. This enterprise is truly based on common sense, and, moreover, with the call of God’s help, and after consulting with good people; and if you have faithful people for this, whom you could entrust, without missing out on that trade, which seems natural and familiar to you, and I am the worst, for my part I pray to the Lord, may He bless you to carry out this grain trade with the trust of benefit, both your own and the common one. Witnessing my zealous respect to you and your family, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. January 8, 1844 I know how painful it is to your heart to see your loved ones, especially your mother, in need, and to hear reproaches from her. You are in difficulty and, so to speak, crowded everywhere, it’s a pity for their situation, and you cannot do without grief on the part of your family. At your call, your mother, it seems, is not coming to you because, having become accustomed to the family there, and loving her son and grandchildren, she cannot leave them, and is afraid of your message here, which may be completely new for her; and does not hope to get used to a different kind of life. In this she is excusable. A feeling of kinship and compassion for your neighbor convinces you to take your brother to you, but it is not the desire of the family and advice……..forbid you to do this. All this is difficult and hesitant for you; ask my advice on what to do in this matter? But who am I? Do I know the future? Judging by the circumstances, we can assume that his stay with you will not be without sorrow. No matter how loyal he may be to you in nature, the enemy can still bring doubtful thoughts and reproaches from the other half. Although you are obligated not to leave your mother and brother, I don’t think you will be able to feed his entire family. Capital, although it is in your hands, and you are its owner, but everything is some other duty in relation to the family, you can help according to your strength, but wouldn’t it be better for your brother to look for a place with another outsider, where his merits can be better assessed, of course, he is not without abilities in the trading part, but that he does not benefit from his own business, this is almost the common fate of the present time; but you need to live somehow, drink, eat, pay off capital and debts; No matter how much I feel sorry for your brother, I couldn’t muster the courage to give you a decisive answer to accepting him. Driving to M–y and beyond, you certainly visited them, and certainly had a meeting with them about this subject, and decided on something. I wish that all this will serve for the better, for their benefit and for the common good. And in particular, if you and your family wish peace, health and prosperity, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. February 14, 1845. I am not in the least offended for your silence, knowing the wide range of your activities in the household, trade and relations, but it is necessary to devote part of the time to the most necessary: ​​to serving God and caring for the soul, although throughout the whole day in deeds, words and thoughts one must be concerned about this. But in addition to all this, you also take the time to write to me; from which I see and am confident in your goodwill and zeal towards me; However, I don’t doubt it anyway; I ask you not to doubt me, even if there were a delay on my part in writing. Thank you for congratulating me on the feast of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the joyful greeting: Christ is Risen! Accept the answer: He is risen in truth! With the desire that you and your family will continue to celebrate such holidays for many years to come, in good health, with heartfelt joy. Glory to God that you and your home Church (gathering of believers) were honored during holy Lent to be partakers of the most pure and life-giving mysteries of Christ; may He make you worthy to be created and become His abode, through the fulfillment of His holy commandments. And the little one... undoubtedly deserved to celebrate the sacred Easter in heaven, and will forever enjoy bliss there, God having arranged it for him. In your difficult circumstances, your strongest hope is in God. As you write, “my soul trusts in Him”! Hope will certainly not put you to shame; I could have a great discussion about this, but neither time nor my mind can expand; however, I will say: may the Lord, who is greatly bestowed with His blessing, bless you and all your wealth; but you remember the word of God: seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). I feel sorry for your relatives, but you truly hurt your heart for them more than I do; if possible, and perhaps even beyond that, you helped and paid off your parent’s debt; for this reason, perhaps, God’s blessing will remain on you. Now how will God tell you; Don’t they perhaps need to reduce maintenance costs, according to the proverb: clothes need to be stretched; but I don’t know their life and existence, now many are in need, trade is bad everywhere. I wish you health, peace and prosperity; I remain your unworthy pilgrim I.M. April 4, 1844. You please those who travel to us......, who can enjoy the abundance of spiritual food in the house of the Lord, in our monastery; and you blame yourself for depriving yourself of this. According to their faith, may the Lord grant them spiritual benefit. But don’t consider yourself completely deprived of it; in every place the sovereignty of God; Now in no Jerusalem is a sacrifice acceptable to the Lord made, but the whole earth is filled with His glory, and the incense of prayers is accepted in every place, the manna of the word of God is sent down for everyone; and incorruptible food, the pure body and blood of Christ is given to everyone who wants it, for the remission of sins and eternal life. The grace of God reaches everyone, according to the measure of faith, desire and seeking of each, like a fountain of living water: thirst, let him come to Me, and let him drink (John 7:37), says Christ. Having such effects of grace, can you consider yourself deprived? Run to God with faith, ask with hope, and accept His spiritual gifts with love; but have in all this great humility, which will calm you down; even though it may seem to you that you have nothing, but of course this is more than what you would think to have something and be carried away by this dream; even in the acts of virtue themselves, which bear spiritual fruits, there must be humility, which in itself can save a person; and without it things will not be saved (chapter 43 of Calista and Ignatius). You complain about the struggle of passions; I’ll say this again: God’s help is needed in this matter, and awareness of one’s weakness and humility. I am sure of your desire to be with us and personally explain everything in detail; but obstacles that are not in our will do not allow us to fulfill this; Therefore, having submitted to the will of God, let us wait for the time when He will be pleased to arrange this. May your faith save you; and according to your faith, one word will greatly enlighten your mind and strengthen your strength to do good deeds and conquer passions, with the help of God: but without faith, even much-woven rhetoric will accomplish nothing. For this, with the wish for your health and prosperity and with my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. June 17, 1844 I have the honor to congratulate you on the approaching day of your Angel.....; My desire is that the Lord give you a peaceful and prosperous life, and may He bestow upon you and your entire family His rich blessing; Even though I am a sinner, I dare to pray for His goodness. For a long time now I have no information about your health and stay, and in general, either O–b is from us, or we have moved away from him, this is a very pity. Maybe the weather is preventing this, there is nothing to ride on, neither a sleigh nor wheels. Although we apparently seem to be distant, our zeal and goodwill always remain in our memories and the goodwill of all our benefactors in Christ, O’s inhabitants; we have no doubt about their zeal and goodwill toward us. Your everyday worries are necessary, and especially your loneliness, does not allow you to fulfill what you would like. At least you use the excess time, although small, for useful exercise, to gain spiritual food, which is stored in abundance in your small office. And we all need this, when the soul is hungry, then there is little use from a saturated body and from an abundance of wealth, but God forbid, when the much-desired spiritual peace and family harmony are still lacking! Let us remember the word of the Lord: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). And this memory, of course, will excite us with hope of both future and present blessings. I can’t tell you anything special about myself: I am in my usual position, meanwhile I mean that not only every day, but every minute brings me closer to the outcome into eternity; The past time of life seems like yesterday. The Holy Prophet David says: I thought about the first days and remembered eternal years (Ps. 77:6), and likens this life to days, and likens eternity to years. Paki, having wished you and your entire family peace and health, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, much-sinful I.M. November 21, 1844. The elder’s advice was carried out by the parents exactly and, following his prayers, the girl recovered completely. Letters from N 221 to N 230 were written to the same person to whom letters from N 137 to N 141 were written. Vasily Petrovich Braguzin, a (famous) holy fool for Christ’s sake, known to many in that country. Letters from No. 231 to No. 254 were all written to the same person. Read about the fact that prayer and other spiritual actions are gifts of God from St. Isaac's word 2 p. 14. “I do not feel the thoughts of God about themselves. She, but if the place is clean and undefiled (that is, the heart is pure from passions) and further; yes above this on page 13. Letters from No. 255 to No. 383 were all written to the same person. This letter is addressed to the father-in-law of the person to whom the others were written. You might be interested in: